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Leaves opposite, stipulate, petiolate; lamina (3) 4–8 × 1·2–3 cm., lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, rarely ovate, chartaceous to papyraceous, somewhat olive-green above, glaucous or pale silvery below, when young somewhat pilose (mainly below) or glabrous, when older usually glabrous but sometimes somewhat pilose (mainly on the midrib underneath), apex acute or subobtuse, margin crenate usually with small teeth in the sinuses, base rounded or broadly cuneate or very rarely subcordate; secondary nerves 6–8 pairs, very fine, somewhat prominent underneath; petiole (0·2) 0·6–1·7 (2·3) cm. long, slender, canaliculate, pilose or glabrous; stipules up to 5 mm. long, triangular-subulate, very slender.
Anterior petal 4–6 mm. long, c. 5 mm. broad (when flattened), dorsally not cristate, glabrous; lateral united petals (10) 12–14 (17) mm. long, deeply 2-lobed, with a very long finely filiform appendage (inserted just below the sinus of the lobes) which extends into the spur of the posterior sepal at the base (see t. 26 fig. 18); anterior lobe up to 10 × 8 mm., usually obliquely obovate or obdeltate, sometimes subtruncate; posterior lobe similar in shape, 1/2–1/3 the size of the anterior one.
Flowers in few-to many-flowered axillary and/or terminal racemes, white or pink or pale mauve, usually with 2 lateral red spots at the throat of the posterior sepal and with small white spots in front of them (the spur often bright yellow edged with red); pedicels 2–12 mm. long, very slender, usually glabrous; bracts 1·5–4 mm. long, oblong-obovate, apically obtuse and somewhat thickened (glandular tip?) with 1 or 2 (rarely 3) pairs of 1–3 mm. long spreading filiform appendages on the margin.
Lateral sepal 3–5 × c. 2 mm., ovate to ovate-oblong, somewhat oblique, with the apex obtuse and slightly thickened (glandular tip?), with 1 or 2 (rarely 3) pairs of spreading filiform appendages on the margin in the lower half, glabrous; posterior sepal 7–8·5 mm. long, 2·5–4 mm. deep, abruptly contracted into the spur, distally acute, rarely subcaudate; spur 10–14 (17) mm. long, slightly incurved, usually cylindric, with the end acute or bluntish.
Weak perennial herb; stems 0·3–0·8 (1·3) m. high, erect or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, simple or more often laxly branched (mainly in the upper parts), glabrous or rarely with the younger parts sparsely pilose, succulent, reddish or dark green.
Seeds numerous, c. 3 × 1·75 mm., elliptic in outline, brown or blackish, densely covered with short spreading conical multicellular hairs.
Capsule 5–10 mm. long, obliquely fusiform, glabrous.
Ovary glabrous.
