Annual herb; stems to 35 cm long, erect (when small) to procumbent, usually conspicuously dichotomously branched (but often starting to flower when only a few cm tall and unbranched), white to pale grey (rarely brownish), when young subglabrous to finely puberulous with small white bulbous-based hairs with a sharp point (rugose). Leaves with strongly raised midrib, beneath subglabrous but for sparsely sericeous-puberulous midrib, above uniformly finely sericeous-puberulous or sparsely so (rarely subglabrous) with hairs as on stems (rugose), sometimes with longer hairs intermixed; lamina linear to lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, largest 1.5-9(-11.5) x 0.15-0.6(-1) cm; margin strongly recurved, on some or all with 1-4(-6) small to large and triangular mucronate teeth. Spikes clustered at base of stems (on small plants solitary in axils of cotyledons) and often also higher up at bifurcations, 1.5-8.5(-14) cm long, 4-many-flowered; peduncle 1-3 mm long, with 3-4 pairs of gradually larger sterile bracts; fertile bracts greenish to brownish (rarely whitish), broadly elliptic or broadly obovate, 17-33 x 6-15 mm of which the straight to recurved tip 9-18 mm, abruptly narrowed below apical pair of teeth, tip narrowly triangular, on each side with 4-6 teeth (including usually 1 on tip) of which largest 3-10 mm long, uniformly finely sericeous-puberulous or sparsely so and with longer (1-2(-3) mm) hairs on veins (rarely without). Bracteoles linear with wider base, 4.5-9 x 0.5-1 mm, upper half sometimes purplish. Sepals sometimes with a purple band in apical half, uniformly finely sericeous-puberulous or sparsely so and sometimes with longer hairs on veins, sometimes glabrous towards base or ventral completely glabrous, conspicuously ciliate towards apex; dorsal 8-15 mm long, 5-7-veined from base, ovate-elliptic or broadly so with short ligulate apical part, apex truncate, (rarely with central mucro distinctly longer or with 3 mucros), becoming scarious and disintegrating; ventral 6-11 mm long, 5-veined from base, 2-3-veined at apex or veins not reaching apex, broadly ovate-elliptic, narrowing gradually to a truncate irregularly toothed apex or with 2 small teeth under 0.5 mm long (rarely up to 1 mm); lateral ovate, 4-7 mm long. Corolla blue to lilac, 12-18 mm long of which the tube 3-5 mm; limb obovate, 4-8 mm wide, lateral lobes small, central lobe about as wide as long, retuse to emarginate, constricted at base; filaments 3-5 mm long, glabrous to sparsely glandular apically; appendage (1-)2-3 mm long, oblong, often with twisted or recurved tip, usually overtopping anther; anthers 1-2.5 mm long. Capsule 5-8 mm long, often only 1-seeded; seed 4-4.5 x 3.5-4 mm.
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