An evergreen shrub usually dwarf and under 2 ft high in gardens, of bushy rounded shape; young shoots clothed with spreading hairs. Leaves set on the twigs several to the inch, narrowly oblong or oval, blunt-ended, 1⁄3 to 1 in. long, 1⁄12 to 1⁄4 in. wide, but made narrower by their recurved margins; dark green, downy, minutely warted above; silky-hairy beneath, stalkless. Flowers produced about five together in terminal clusters, the perianth (calyx) about 1⁄2 in. long, curved, swollen at the base, red at the lower part, yellow upwards, downy. A conspicuous part of the flower is the stout downy style with its knob-like stigma standing out 1⁄4 in. beyond the calyx and of a similar colour. Bot. Mag., t. 5007.
Native of South Australia in mountainous districts; first flowered in this country apparently by Messrs Rollisson of Tooting in May 1857. It is very frequently shown in spring at the Royal Horticultural Society’s meetings grown in pots. Although in a climate like that of Kew its tenure as an outdoor shrub is insecure and often short, it is about as hardy as G. sulphurea, and (say) thirty miles south of London, is well worth growing in a sunny sheltered spot in the rock garden. It blooms freely and over a long season, but the red of the flowers is not particularly bright.