Herbs or subshrubs, erect, perennial, to 70 cm; stems terete to flattened, smooth or sulcate, glabrous. Leaves petiolate; petiole 2-5 mm, puberulent; blade drying papery, lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or narrowly lanceolate, 5.5-11 × 0.8-3 cm, adaxially glabrous or papillose at least near margins, abaxially glabrous, base cuneate to acute, apex acute to long acuminate; secondary veins 4-6 pairs but indistinct; stipules fused to petiole bases, triangular to broadly triangular, 3-8 mm, glabrous or papillose-puberulent, smooth or costate, entire or serrulate, acute to caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences terminal and in uppermost leaf axils, congested-cymose, fastigiate to subglobose, 2-3 cm, densely puberulent, several to many flowered, pedunculate; peduncle 5.5-9 cm; bracts triangular, oblong-ovate, or narrowly elliptic, 0.8-6 mm; pedicels 1-2 mm. Flowers pedicellate. Calyx densely papillose or farinose puberulent; hypanthium portion turbinate, 1-1.5 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes oblong-ovate to triangular, 1-1.8 mm. Corolla purple or pink, salverform, outside farinose puberulent; tube 7-10 mm, inside pilose; lobes oblong-ovate, 1.2-2 mm. Anthers positioned in throat. Stigmas included, positioned near middle of corolla tube, ca. 2 mm. Fruit capsular, subglobose to ellipsoid and somewhat laterally flattened, 2-2.5 mm in diam., puberulent, flat on top, dehiscent; seeds several, blackish brown, angled. Fl. May-Sep.
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