Herbs, perennial, procumbent and often matted or lodged, from slender, reddish brown rhizomes. Stems 0.6-1.2 m, much branched, densely retrorsely aculeolate on 4 angles. Leaves in whorls of 6-10, sessile or subsessile; blade drying papery or somewhat leathery and ± glossy, narrowly (ob)lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, (6-)15-25(-50) × (2-)2.5-4(-8) mm, glabrescent, both surfaces sparsely to densely aculeolate on midrib, base acute to cuneate, margins flat to narrowly revolute, densely retrorsely aculeolate, apex acute and shortly mucronate; vein 1. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, to 12 × 9 cm, with several-to many-flowered cymes; peduncles elongating as inflorescences develop, becoming much longer than subtending leaves; axes glabrescent, sparsely to densely retrorsely aculeolate; bracts elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-3 × 0.5-1 mm; pedicels 1-3 mm. Ovary ellipsoid to obovoid, 0.5-0.8 mm, glabrous. Corolla bluish to violet (rarely white?), shortly funnelform, 1.5-2.5 mm, tube 1-1.5 × as long as lobes; lobes 4, triangular-spatulate. Mericarps subglobose to ellipsoid, 1.5-2 × 1.7-2 mm, glabrous, smooth or often tuberculate. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.
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