Streptocarpus pole-evansi is a perennial, rosulate species closely allied to the red-flowered Streptocarpus dunni and the violet-flowered Streptocarpus denticulatus but it has a very differently shaped flower. The corollas (about 17 mm long) have a bulbous base and a strongly curved tube about 8 mm long. The top two corolla lobes are very reduced and the three bottom lobes project forward strongly like a keyhole shaped flower, but there is a distinctive double keel of the corolla floor, which is not found in keyhole shaped flowers. Furthermore the reddish-violet, outer surface of the corolla is covered in distinctive long hairs.
This species survives the extreme cold and dessication in winter by almost completely abscissing the whole leaf with only a small stub of living leaf that survives. When spring rains fall this leaf then grows rapidly again. This species can be viewed to be a real oddball which some specialists have grown well, but the pictures shown from the wild, may help others to cultivate this peculiar species successfully in future.
