Almost certainly undescribed. I tentatively gave it the moniker until otherwise proven wrong. Kyle and I wandered up to the base of the amazing bluffs (proximal to the Epupa landing strip) that we had camped at the night before. Lucinda, following a hardwired routine from her Arizona days, followed the wash some ways out. At whatever point, she encountered this plant (in sterile condition) that neither Kyle nor I saw. Nor have I seen anything like it in the field or in any herbarium… yet.

May 2016 update: GBS / RAD-seq phylogeny of Petalidium finally assembled! THIS thing comes out as sister to the massive clade that contains Petalidium variable, P. ohopohense, P. rossmanianum, and P. welwitschii. Might have been where that ultra-arid radiation, in the driest stretch of the Kaokoveld, all began….

Do not miss these amazing geological formations only 5 miles south of Epupa….Nor the Magellanic Clouds that go with it…

Wild collected, Namibia, Tripp, McDade, & Dexter #4060 (RSA-POM); Photos by Erin Tripp