About 1.5 m high, rigid, with glabrous branchlets. Leaves mostly 0.8-1 cm long, very closely set, shortly petiolate, erect-spreading, lanceolate-linear, truncate, dorsally compressed, with a prominent median vein on both surfaces, glabrous or with a few long hairs on the dorsal surface. Stipules subulate, ustulate, shorter than the petiole. Flower-heads about 1.5 cm wide, globose, involucred by scale-like ciliate leaves, usually clustered in corymb-like groups. Bract spathulate, densely villous on the dorsal surface, slightly overtopping the calyx-lobes. Calyx-tube obconic, slightly compressed, densely villous: calyx-lobes about 4 mm long, spaced at the base, linear, densely villous on the dorsal surface, with an acuminate deciduous apex. Petals about 6 mm long, linear-oblong, tapering towards the base, slightly widened and rounded at the apex, often emarginate, red, with 2 wing-like keels on the upper half extending almost to the base. Stamens much exserted: filaments almost equal: anthers 1.25 mm long, oblong: thecae free in the lower half. Ovary 1/2 inferior, villous, with 2 imperfectly formed uniovulate chambers (inner edges of placentas free, adjacent): styles villous at the base. Fruit mostly sterile, 2-seeded: seeds ovate.
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Like B. albiflora but leaves broader, glabrous, with prominent midvein beneath, flowers red and ovary hairy above.
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