Erect perennial herbs to 60 cm tall, rarely scapose, the stems sparingly pilose with peak, multicellular gland-tipped hairs, drying sulcate. Leaves subopposite, oblanceolate, apically acuminate or acute, basally acute, minutely and distantly serrate in the distal half, the midvein prominent, the 2-3 lateral veins often indistinct, glabrous; petiole not defined, the leaf base concaulescent forming a pair of ridges on the stem. Inflorescences solitary flowers in the leaf axils, aggregated to form terminal racemes with reduced leaves; pedicels slender, 10-15 mm long, sparingly pilose, basally flanked by two minute, glabrous, acicular, scalelike bracts. Flowers showy, zygomorphic, the calyx 3-4 mm long, 5-lobed to the base, the lobes ovate, apically acuminate, glabrous; corolla blue or violet with a green throat, 15-20 mm long, 2-lipped, the lips wide spreading, the upper lip 2-lobed with a shallow sinus, the lower lip with 3 spatulate lobes 6-10 mm long, the lobes all subequal, punctate dorsally, punctate and puberulent inside, sometimes ciliolate, the tube campanulate, apically 2-saccate on the lower side and. with a short appendage (staminode?); stamens 4, alike, the filaments inserted near the base of the tube, the anthers 2-locular with divaricate, basally connate thecas situated against the top of the tube, not exserted; ovary narrowly ellipsoidal, the style short, the stigma situated among the anthers. Capsule sub-globose, half exserted from the persistent calyx lobes, 4-8 mm across, dehiscing to the base into 2 valves, the placentas becoming honeycomblike.
Home