Compact cushion-shaped dwarf shrub to 10 cm tall and 30 cm in circumference; young branches brownish, minutely puberulous or sparsely so with white bulbous-shaped hairs with a fine point. Leaves green, leathery, with conspicuous white midrib, sparsely minutely puberulous with hairs as on stems, conspicuously white-dotted when old; lamina elliptic-obovate, largest 2-4.5 x 0.3-0.8 cm; margin strongly raised, white, not recurved, on all with 3-8 teeth; petiole with dense tuft of hairs at base on the inside, within 2 mm of base with 2-4 teeth per side to 5 mm long. Spikes 1.5-2.5 cm long, 1-2-flowered, peduncle 1-3 mm long, with 2-3 pairs of sterile bracts; fertile bracts 3-5-veined from base, transverse veins absent, brownish to greenish, minutely puberulous with hairs as on stems and leaves, narrowly ovate to narrowly oblong or narrowly obovate, 15-22 x 1-4 mm of which the straight triangular and spiny-mucronate tip 3-5 mm, on each side with 5-7 teeth of which the longest 2-4 mm bracteoles lanceolate to oblanceolate, 16-21 x 1-2 mm, with a strong pungent mucro and on each side with 1-5 teeth to 2.5 mm long (one side with more teeth than the other and sometimes only toothed on one side). Sepals minutely puberulous with hairs as on stems, leaves and bracts, no long hairs, not ciliate; dorsal 16-21 mm long, 3(-5)-veined from base, ovate, apical part long, ligulate to slightly spathulate and narrowing gradually to the acute strongly pungent-mucronate apex with 1 tooth (rarely with 1-2 extra small teeth), apical part not becoming scarious; ventral 12-18 mm long, 5-veined from base, ovate with short ligulate apical part, apex truncate, with 2 triangular and mucronate teeth 1.5-3 mm long; lateral 7-12 mm long, ovate. Corolla bluish purple, 24-30 mm long of which the tube 4-6 mm; limb obovate-spathulate, 10-14 mm wide, central lobe wider than long, retuse, narrowed at base; filaments 8-9 mm long, glabrous or sparsely glandular in apical part, two broad towards base with a few hairs; appendage c. 1 mm long, oblong, slightly curved, broadly rounded; anthers 4-5 mm long. Capsule 4-seeded, 10-13 mm long; seed ± 6 x 5 mm.
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