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Leaf-lamina 3·5–11 x 1·5–5 cm., ovate-cordate, acute, entire or minutely crenulate, membranous to somewhat rigid, dark green above, pale green beneath, sparsely setose on both faces with short, subappressed bristles, longitudinally 7–11-nerved, the nerves impressed above, prominent below, transverse nerves inconspicuous above, slightly visible beneath; petiole up to 3 cm. long but the upper leaves subsessile.
Receptacle c. 6 mm. long, ovoid-oblong, green, shortly and patently setose (the bristles ± dense and spinulose) and with sparse elongate-cylindric patent caducous appendages, dilated at the apex into a multiradiate setose disk.
Longer stamens with anthers 7–8 mm. long, pedoconnectives 3·5–1-mm. long with appendages dilated towards the notched apex; shorter stamens with anthers 6–7 mm. long, pedoconnectives c. 1 mm. long with short bilobed appendages.
Flowers sessile in dense cymes arranged in pyramidal sometimes very large or ± contracted panicles; bracts 3–5 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute, green or pellucid, setose on the outer side, ciliate, caducous.
Fructiferous receptacle 7–8 mm. long, oblong-urceolate, glabrescent, longitudinally 20-nerved, the nerves somewhat raised. Capsule ovoid, densely setose at the apex with the bristles long and rigid.
Sepals 2·5–3 mm. long, triangular-subulate, green, ciliate at the margins and apex, early caducous; intersepalar segments like the receptacular appendages and also caducous.
Stems stout, scarcely branched, sharply 4-gonous or winged towards the apex, green, hirsute, glabrescent.
Seeds c. 0·75 mm. long, indistinctly tuberculate.
A many-stemmed perennial herb up to 1·5 m. high.
Petals c. 12·5 mm. long, pink-mauve.
Shrubby herb, to 8 ft. high
Flowers mauve or purple.
A herb or shrub.