Ruspolia hypocrateriformis var. australis and commonly red mock-plumbago is a shade plant reaching heights around 1 m.

It produces attractive red or pink tubular flowers growing in spikes. Flowering happens during summer.

The species distribution is in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The habitat is open woodland. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The plant is common in horticultural use (Germishuizen and Fabian, 1982; http://redlist.sanbi.org).