Shrub to about 1m tall. Stems angled or winged. Leaves ovate to lanceolate, 3-10 cm long, with small rounded teeth. Flower clusters branched, to about 30 cm long. Flowers about 5 cm long, in open clusters, flower tubes narrow and slightly curved, red or orange; summer to autumn.
S Africa (Cape)
P. aequalis Hiern. differs in having flowers with almost straight tubes and flower stalks about 1.5 cm long. Cultivars available include the following. 'Yellow Trumpet', which is a dense shrub with pale creamy yellow flowers with darker lobes, the flowers often produced in 2 flushes, was introduced to cultivation in the UK and S Africa from wild populations in 1973.
P. ×rectus Coombes is a hybrid between P. capensis and P. aequalis, with flowers on stalks to 3 cm long and with orange-red lobes and straight flower tubes pointing directly downwards. P. ×rectus 'African Queen' (P. aequalis × P. capensis 'Coccineus') has a pale red flower tube with orange-red lobes slightly turned up at the mouth. P. 'Indian Chief' is now considered to be a synonym of P. ×rectus 'African Queen'. P. ×rectus 'Salmon Leap' (P. capensis 'Coccineus'× P. ×rectus 'Winchester Fanfare') has pale orange flowers regular at the mouth with darker lobes that are not bent back, to give the flower a star-like appearance. .
Source: (2002). Scrophulariaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Updated by: Rob Cross, February 2018