Shrub or spreading low shrub, to 1 m tall (Fig. 12D). Branches erect, or ascending; old stems dark brown (mostly), or grey; youngest branchlets brown, or red-brown, or green; internodes (1–)2–6(–7.5) mm long; leaf decurrencies evident; leaf-base scars prominent; stem pubescence bifarious, eglandular. Leaf bud about as long as mature leaves with leaves of a pair separating when mature; sinus broad and acute (Fig. 12E). Leaves free at base, erecto-patent to patent; lamina obovate or oblanceolate or elliptic (Fig. 12F, 13), coriaceous, concave, (6.4–)7–15.5(–19.6) mm long, (3.5–)5.3– 6.9(–7.9) mm wide; apex obtuse to acute; base cuneate; evident venation in fresh leaves consisting of midrib only; midrib thickened beneath and depressed to grooved above; margin usually slightly thickened, rounded (or often ± squarish), minutely papillate and sometimes glandular-ciliate (with clusters of short glandular hairs at bases of marginal teeth), entire or crenate (may vary on one plant); upper surface green, slightly glossy or dull, with many or with few or without evident stomata, hairy along midrib (hairs 0.075–0.175 mm long, Fig. 14A,B); lower surface glaucous or glaucescent or light green, dull, with many stomata, glabrous. Petiole 1–2.5 mm long, hairy above (along midrib). Inflorescences (Fig. 15B) with 4–10(–16) flowers, lateral, racemose and unbranched (mostly) or sometimes racemose and compound with (1–)2 branches at base, 0.9–3.1 cm long, longer than (mostly) or about equal to subtending leaves, flowers opening in acropetal sequence; peduncle (0.1–)0.4–0.65 cm long, pubescent with a mixture of eglandular and glandular hairs (glandular hairs not always obvious); rachis (0.4–)1–1.5(–2.1) cm long, pubescent with a mixture of eglandular and glandular hairs; bracts opposite and decussate, usually free or connate (only sometimes, and then only connected by a very narrow ridge), subacute or acute or acuminate, ciliolate with both glandular and eglandular hairs and sometimes with eglandular and minute twin-headed glandular hairs inside, lanceolate or deltoid; pedicels shorter or much shorter than bracts or absent, pubescent with both eglandular and glandular hairs, suberect or erectopatent at anthesis, suberect or erecto-patent at fruiting, 0.5–1.5 mm long. Flowers on individual plants either hermaphrodite or female. Calyx 2– 3 mm long, 4-lobed, divisions subequally deep; lobes lanceolate to elliptic, obtuse or subacute, with mixed glandular and eglandular cilia, margins narrowly membranous. Corolla white at anthesis, white after pollination; tube glabrous, 1.8–3 mm long, 2.2–2.5 mm wide, broadly funnelform and contracted at base, more or less equalling calyx; tube of female flowers 1.4–1.6 mm long, c. 1.5–1.8 mm wide, contracted at base, shorter than or equalling calyx (Fig. 16C); lobes longer than corolla tube, glabrous; posterior lobe ovate, obtuse; lateral lobes elliptic, obtuse; anterior lobe elliptic, obtuse; corolla throat white. Stamen filaments white, diverging after anthesis, straight at apex in bud, 2.5–6.5 mm long (lower value represents staminodes only); anthers obtuse or apiculate, magenta, c. 2–2.2 mm long; sterile anthers c. 0.7–1.1 mm long. Nectarial disc glabrous. Ovary ovoid, glabrous, 1.5–1.7 mm long; ovules 7–18 per locule (in hermaphrodite plants), marginal in one layer on a flattened placenta; style 5–7 mm long, glabrous, white; stigma subcapitate or capitate, white or yellow or green at anthesis. Capsules subacute or obtuse, pale brown, 3.2–4 mm long, (2.2–)2.5–3.2 mm wide, glabrous, loculicidal split extending ¼–½ way to base.

H. cockayneana et H. cryptomorpha affinis; ab ambobus numero chromosomatum (2n = 80) et compositione flavonoideorum (ut indice 1) differt; a H. cockayneana pubescentibus foliorum costae in pagina supra crassis (pilis 0.075–0.175 mm longis), foliis oblanceolatis a margine crenulatis interdum differt; a H. cryptomorpha 7–18 ovulis in ovariis plantarum hermaphroditarum instructis, foliis longissimis (11.9–)14.0–22.0(–25.4) mm longis differt.

2n = 80

2n = 80