Perennial wiry herb to 1 m tall, sparingly branched, the stems terete or somewhat compressed, sometimes drying somewhat angled or grooved, puberulent but seldom strigulose, the 2-3 celled hairs microscopically tuberulate, the bases sometimes expanded. Leaves lanceolate, to 6 cm long, 10 mm wide, acute at both ends, entire or remotely denticulate, prominently 3(-5) nerved, the veins elevated beneath, scabrous to glabrate, the leaves smaller upwards, becoming scalelike and apparently 1-nerved at the inflorescence, pubescent on both sides with acicular hairs, more so beneath, glabrescent beneath except on the costa, the petiole obsolete. Inflorescence an elongate terminal spike, the flowers mostly aggregated and sometimes congested near the apex, the lower portion of the rachis with greatly reduced leaves (bracts), the flowers subtended by 2 small bracts, the outermost larger, conspicuously ciliate and dorsally appressed pubes-cent. Flowers mostly pink or purplish, the calyx tubular, 5-6 mm long, the 5 deltoid lobes subequal, the tube 10-nerved with evident intermediate longitudinal nerves and thus appearing many nerved, mostly pubescent all over with short hairs, the bases sometimes expanded and callose, but not greatly so; corolla salverform, 6-9 mm long, the tube overall pubescent outside with short, weak hairs; the limb 5-lobed, 6-7 mm across, the lobes entire or crenulate-erose mar-gined, ?emarginate ciliate, the throat tufted with stout hairs; stamens inserted in the lower 1/2 of the tube, the 2 pairs at nearly the same level, 1 pair of the filaments twice as long as the other, the anthers ovate, apiculate, versatile, becoming quite flat, situated in the upper 1/2 of the tube; ovary glabrous, the style simple, the stigma an elongate continuation of the style, not or hardly exceeding the anthers. Fruiting calyx 5-7 mm long, 20-30 nerved or reticulate between the 10 ribs, indurate, apically strigose with short, subappressed stout based hairs, the capsule about as long as the calyx lobes; seeds yellowish, longi-tudinally ridged, oblong, ca. 0.5 mm long.
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