Herbs or subshrubs, erect, perennial, to 50 cm tall; stems terete to weakly 4-angled, often flexuous, puberulent to glabrous. Leaves subsessile to petiolate; petiole to 2(-6) mm; blade drying papery, usually clear green, narrowly lanceolate, lanceolate, ovate, or lanceolate-elliptic, 2.5-9 × 0.7-3 cm, both surfaces glabrous except densely puberulent on midrib adaxially, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute to acuminate; secondary veins 3 or 4 pairs but usually indistinct; stipules fused to petiole bases, triangular, ovate, or subtruncate, 1-3 mm, densely puberulent, acute to acuminate, marginally entire, serrulate, or occasionally glandular-erose. Inflorescences terminal and often axillary and/or pseudoaxillary in uppermost leaf axils, cymose to paniculate, 4-18 cm, glabrous, several to many flowered, pedunculate; peduncle 0.5-2 cm; axes slender, flexuous, spreading at up to 90°; bracts linear to narrowly triangular, 1-5 mm; pedicels 4-15 mm. Flowers all pedicellate, apparently monomorphic. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium portion turbinate to ellipsoid, 1-1.5 mm; limb lobed for 2/3-3/4; lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm. Corolla white, sometimes tinged pink to purple, funnelform, outside glabrous, inside densely barbate in throat and throughout lobes; tube 1.5-3 mm; lobes lanceolate to spatulate, 3-4 mm, acute to acuminate. Anthers partially to fully exserted, ca. 1.5 mm. Stigma 0.1-0.2 mm, exserted by 3-4 mm. Fruit capsular, ovoid to ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, smooth, septicidally then loculicidally dehiscent; seeds numerous, black, angled. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jun-Nov.
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