About Roridula gorgonias Planch.
Scientific name: Roridula gorgonias Planch. Roridula gorgonias, commonly called Gorgons dewstick, is a slender shrub that reaches 60–100 cm in height. It has fairly stout brownish stems marked with prominent horizontal leaf scars. Leaves grow crowded at the tips of branches. Young leaves grow upright, but their bases gradually bend downward until the leaves are fully reflexed. After a shoot produces flowers, it dies back, but develops new side shoots below the old inflorescences. Leaves are arranged alternately, and lack both stipules and leaf stalks. The leaf blade is linear, up to 12 cm (6 in) long and ½ cm (0.2 in) wide, tapering toward the tip. It has an entire margin that bears many long tentacles, each topped by a teardrop-shaped gland. The upper leaf surface is covered with many smaller, shorter tentacles mixed with white hairs. The lower leaf surface is hairless, except for a row of short tentacles along the raised mid-vein. Flowers are arranged in a spike that ends in a terminal flower, and a spike may hold up to twelve radially symmetrical flowers. Each flower sits on a short stalk that has a bract at its base.
