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Leaves 3-nate; lamina 3–15·5 x 1·6–7 cm., ovate-lanceolate or ovate, cordate or subcordate at base, attenuate, acute or subobtuse at the apex, serrulate at the margin (teeth prolonged from the base by branched bristles), very discolorous (light to dull green above, pale-to yellowish-green beneath), covered on the upper face with short subconic prominences, each provided with raised whitish lines converging from base to summit into a simple or sometimes basally branched bristle, foveolate-reticulate and soft-pubescent (hairs rather long, thin, white, subappressed) beneath, longitudinally 5–7-nerved, the longitudinal nerves impressed above, prominent and scaly beneath (scales ovate or ovate-lanceolate, setose at apex), the transverse nerves and reticulation raised on the under face; petiole 0·5–3 cm. long, subcylindric, scaly.
Floriferous branches terete, brownish and scaly (scales minute, dilated and spinulose at the base, fringed at margins and shortly setose at top) proximally, sulcate, pale green or yellow and also scaly (the scales prolonged into ± patent bristles) apically.
Sepals 8–9 x 3–4 mm., oblong-lanceolate, glabrous and purple inside, densely setose outside, with long bristles at the apex; intersepalar segments 2–3 x 1–1·5 mm., united with the sepals by a circumscissile, caducous receptacle rim.
Fructiferous receptacle 10–11 x 6–7–5 mm., very constricted and prolonged above the capsule by the 5-undulate-dentate rim. Capsule subspherical, 6–7 mm. in diameter, or widely ovoid, c. 8 x 6 mm., appressed-setose on the upper 1/3.
Flowers 5-merous, in terminal, very compact panicles; bracts 12–13·5 x 7–9 mm., ovate, scarious, purple inside, densely and appressedly white-scaly outside, caducous; pedicels up to 2 mm. long.
Receptacle 9–11 x 4·5–6·5 mm., oblong-cylindric, densely setose, the bristles 1–2·5 mm. long, flat at the base, white, usually divided.
Longer stamens: anthers 10–14 mm. long; pedoconnective 18–20 mm. long with the bifid basal appendage curved c. 1 mm. long.
Shorter stamens: anthers 10–13 mm. long; pedoconnective 2·5–4 mm. long, 2-appendiculate at the base.
Petals c. 3 x 2–5 cm., obovate, mauve to bright purple, ciliate at margin.
A tall perennial herb or shrub 0·9–3·6 m. high.
Seeds minutely tuberculate.