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Shrub or dwarf shrub, up to 0.3 m tall. Leaves opposite, 2-ranked, elliptic-ovate or ovate-oblong, narrowed apically, densely covered with sharp-pointed, appressed hairs, margin coarsely toothed, mostly with new shoots and leaves in axils. Flowers in short, terminal spikes, slender-tubed with a flat, 5-parted limb, white to yellow. Jan.-Apr.(-Oct.).
Inflorescences of 1–few-flowered spikes 1–3.5 cm long, terminal on branches and branchlets, and overtopped by lateral branchlets also bearing terminal inflorescences (dichasial-like); peduncle 0 or very short; bracts c. 3 × 1 mm, ovate or lanceolate; bracteoles 1–1.5 mm long, subulate.
Schizocarp 6–7 mm long and 2–2.5 mm wide, oblong-ovoid, reticulate-alveolate at the apex and around the pit, faintly reticulate-striate at the posterior face; pit 4.5–5.5 × 2.7 mm, deeply excavate, bordered by a prominent-toothed margin; the 2 mericarps not separating when ripe.
Calyx 11–14 mm long and c. 1.4 mm in diameter, puberulous outside and minutely hairy inside; teeth c. 0.2 mm long, subulate, subequal; fruiting calyx up to 3 mm in diameter, oblong-ovoid, somewhat gibbous at the base, splitting nearly to the apex, chartaceous when dry.
Corolla white, with a slender tube abruptly expanded into a flat limb; tube 1.4–2.7 cm long and c. 0.7 mm in diameter at the base, up to c. 2.2 mm in diameter above, straight; lobes 2.9–3.5 × 1.7–2 mm, emarginate.
Twiggy shrublet to 50 cm. Leaves glaucous, opposite, ovate, petiolate, mostly 5-7-toothed. Flowers in subcapitate spikes, cream-coloured to orange. Cocci with large, lateral areole (excavation).
Perennial herb up to 30 cm high, with a long slender woody taproot; the indumentum of minute or uniformly short, erect or somewhat retrorse, stiff eglandular white hairs.
Stems up to 7 mm thick at the base, branched; branches spreading, terete, leafy and again branched giving the plant a bushy habit, the branchlets opposite.
Filaments c. 1.4 mm long in the upper pair of stamens, c. 0.7 mm long in the lower pair.
Ovary c. 9 mm long and 0.5 mm in diameter; style 1–2 cm long.
