Thulin, M. (2006) Rotheca in Flora of Somalia 3:315-317

Plants shrubs or subshrubs, up to 4 m tall; stems glabrous to tomentose. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3-4; petioles 0-25 mm long; blades elliptic or oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, bases cuneate, margins entire to serrate, tips acute to acuminate. Inflorescences more or less leafy cymes, these sometimes arranged in short-pedunculate panicles. Calyces cup-shaped, glabrous to tomentose, tubes about 5 mm long, lobes rounded to triangular; corollas with midlobes dark blue or violet blue, lateral lobes pale blue or mauve; corolla tubes 5-7 mm lon, inflated in front and and with deep slit at the back; corolla lobes unequal, the middle lobes largest. Fruits 5-6 mm long, 8-10 mm wide, usually deeply 4-lobed.

Rotheca myricoides grows in rocky places within evergreen bushland at 900-1680 m. It is known from regions N1-2 of the Flora of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and throughout much of tropical Africa. 

Thulin notes that it is a very variable species, with many subspecies and varieties being recognized. Plants from Somaliland belong to Rotheca myricoides (Hochst.) Steane & Mabb. var. myricoides. 

©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Reproduced with permission.

Rotheca myricoides is a woody evergreen shrub, usually 2-3m tall. Roots macerated in water and then drunk by women after childbirth is believed as a uterine stimulant to contract the womb, while at the same time easing the removal of the placenta.