You ready for this?

Who said single-mountain endemics can only be found in the hyperdiverse wet tropics or in those wickedly endemic floras of New Caledonia, Madagascar, or the Tepui Highlands (yes, I’m talking about you, Maguireanthus ayangannae…)?

Here is an excellent example of such from Brandberg Mountain – the highest point in Namibia and a massive massif (if you will) of survival of the fittest in full swing. That place is scorching hot and gnarly dry. And Ruellia brandbergensis grows nowhere else on Earth except for in a couple of localities along its slopes. I have searched for it – twice now actually – with no luck. So you’ll have to deliberate its evolution using only a photograph of the type specimen…..

Not my photograph, not my collection, will I ever see it in the field? Sigh….