A weedy caulescent herb, occasionally acaulescent, to 40 cm high with a glabrous stem. Leaves mostly alternate and crowded at the upper portion of the stem, ovate lanceolate, 6-20 cm long, 1.5-6.0 cm wide, apically acute and basally attenuate, narrowing to a winged petiole, the upper surface pilose, the lower surface appressed pilose and restricted to the veins and the veinlets; margins undulate. Inflorescences on numerous scapes borne at the axils of the leaves, 5-28 cm long, branched or simple, covered with lightly appressed bracts; terminal spikes, one to several, 1.5-6.0 cm long; bract single, oblong to elliptic, 4-6 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm wide, awn tipped and stiff with the upper bracts bearing 4 hyaline wings, 2 rounded wings extending from the base and 2 apical wings extending parallel to the apex; 2 subulate bractlets to 3 mm long with a ciliate costa. Flowers sessile; calyx 4-merous to 7 mm long, thin, transparent, with the lower segment bidentate; corolla pale lavender or blue, the tube 5-10 mm long. Capsules to ca. 3 mm long and 1 mm wide.
Bushy slopes, in thickets, and in shrubby forests at low elevations. Damp or dry thickets, open or shaded banks, ravines, roadsides, waste places; at elevations of 75-1,800 metres in Guatemala.
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It is a subtropical plant.
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