Erect herbs to 45 cm tall, stems drying angled, apically slender, glabrate, sometimes with a few short gland-tipped hairs near the apex, much branched; roots fibrous, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes, the stems basally stout. Leaves opposite, oblong or ovate, to ca. 30 mm long and 10 mm wide, apically acute, serrate in the upper 2/3, basally short auriculate, the auricles sometimes denticulate, clasping and appearing perfoliate, the midvein prominent, the lateral veins ca. 5 on each side, drying obscure above and scabridulous with minute acropetal trichomes, glabrate and lighter beneath; petiole wanting. Inflorescences numerous, solitary or paired in the leaf axils, the pedicels slender, scabridulous, mostly exceeding the leaves with a pair of linear or narrowly ovate scalelike bractlets to 1 mm long immediately below each flower, the subtending leaves sometimes reduced to small bracts. Flowers small, the calyx with the outer 3 sepals ovate, apically acute, basally narrowed, costate, ca. 4 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, apically scabridulous, sometimes mucronulate, the 2 inner bracts narrow, costate, hyaline, ciliolate, shorter than the outer bracts; corolla purplish, pubescent within below the filament insertion; stamens 4, didynamous, the filaments inserted in the upper '/2 of the corolla tube, glabrous, ca. 2 mm long, the anthers ellipsoid, ca. 0.7 mm long, versatile, the ventral 2 reduced; ovary glabrous, ovoid, the style distinct, terete, ca. 2.5 mm long, the stigmas distinct, ca. 1 mm long, bifurcate for 2/3 of the length, inserted in a short, annular disc. Capsule subglobose, 3-4 mm long, indurate, eglandular, the placenta cuneiform; seeds longitudinally reticulate, reddish brown, 0.5 mm long.
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