Shrubby herb with several prostrate (rarely erect) stems from a woody rootstock, dome-shaped when well-grown; stems up to 40 cm long, sparsely minutely puberulous when young. Leaves glossy, stiff and leathery with conspicuous raised white edge, glabrous or sparsely puberulous along midrib, lamina sparsely minutely scabrid-puberulous with bulbous-based hairs; lamina narrowly elliptic-obovate, largest 2-4 x 0.2-0.6 cm; margin with 3-9 large spreading triangular mucronate teeth per side, petiole sometimes with a single tooth. Spikes 2-7 cm long, (2-)4-16-flowered; peduncle 5-15 mm long, with 3-5 pairs of evenly distributed sterile bracts, upper like ferdle; fertile bracts glossy, green, usually with whitish veins or whole basal part whitish, glabrous or sparsely puberulous along midrib (rarely sparsely minutely puberulous on lamina), 5(-7)-veined from base, lower and middle ovate-elliptic, 25-35 x 6-14 mm of which the recurved narrowly triangular spinose tip 8-16 mm, on each side with 4-6 teeth of which the longest 6-8 mm. Bracteoles 14-22 x 0.5-2 mm, filiform to linear with widened base, cuspidate, glabrous. Sepals glabrous or dorsal finely puberulous along veins towards apex, finely ciliate; dorsal 17-23 mm long, 5-9-veined from base, ovate with long subligulate apical part which narrows gradually to the acute 1-3-toothed apex, apical part not scarious; ventral 11-19 mm long, 2-7-veined from base, ovate, narrowing gradually to a truncate apex with two triangular mucronate teeth or two mucros 1-3 mm long; lateral 7-11 mm long, ovate. Corolla blue to mauve or violet, 22-34 mm long of which the tube 4-6 mm; limb spathulate, 12-18 mm wide, beneath glabrous except for band of long spreading hairs at base of central lobe which is wider than long, truncate and narrowed at base; callus with indistinct apical flanges; filaments 7-10 mm long, glabrous to sparsely glandular; appendage 2.5-4 mm long, oblong, rounded; anthers 3-5 mm long. Capsule 10-12 mm long; seed 6-8 x 3.5-4.5 mm.
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