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

I do not know what to say about this species. We were calling it Petalidium ‘koppie’ (sp. nov.) for the longest time. But recent anatomical work (spearheaded by PhD student Palm Chumchim, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden) leads me to think it might not be a Petalidium after all. You will note that we collected it more or less sterile (only with old bracts). I maintain my bewilderment until I see flowering or fruiting material.

I love the first photo – Lucinda looks absolutely as perplexed as I am about this plant. Yet at home and happy in that sweet desert wash… en route to the Baynes Mtns, extreme northern Namibia.

Wild collected, Namibia, Tripp, McDade, & Dexter #4064 (RSA-POM); Photo by Erin Tripp

Mayyyyyyyyyybe a new species. One of several that Kyle, Lucinda, and I found during our January 2013 trip. Very clearly this thing bats for the P. variabile team. But: is she different from the former? Is it perfume from a dress that makes me so digress? There seems to be no other plants in the vicinity with which we think she would mingle.

Wild collected, Namibia, Tripp et al. #4075 (RSA-POM); Photo by Erin Tripp