Perennial, woody below, with slender stems 1–3 m, usually arched and rooting at the tip; lvs opposite or more often in whorls of 3 or 4, short-petiolate, lanceolate, 5–15 ×1–4 cm; fls in dense cymes in the upper axils, the narrow pet pink-purple, 10–15 mm; fr 5 mm thick; 2n=32. Swamps and still water-courses. July–Sept. Var. verticillatus, with the pedicels and lower lf-surface ± tomentulose, occurs mostly near the coast from Me. to Fla. and La., and in the Mississippi Valley to Ind. and Mo. Var. laevigatus Torr. & A. Gray, with glabrous pedicels and lvs, is mostly inland, from N.S. and Que. to Minn., s. to e. Tenn.
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