Erect, perennial herb or subshrub, 30-50 cm tall. Stem subquadrate, sulcatae, pilosulous. Petiole short, 3-5 mm long, pilosulous; blade sometimes anisophyllous, firm, elliptic to broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 4-7 x 2-2.7 cm, entire or undulate, acute to acuminate at apex, acute to attenuate at base, upper surface dark green when dry, lower surface drying a lighter green, young blades often reddish to purple on lower surface, glabrate to puberulous; primary vein pilosulous. Inflorescence terminal and axillary spikes, spikes solitary or paired, erect, lax, sometimes violet, 3.5-7 cm long, pedunculate; peduncle short, 4-15 mm long, subquadrangular, pilosulous; rachis subquadrangular, pilosulous; bracts green, not imbricate, decussate, narrowly lanceolate 3.5-4 x 0.75 mm, mucronulate at apex, glabrate to puberulous with both eglandular and glandular trichomes, margin ciliolate; bracteoles linear, 3.5-4 x 0.5 mm, vestiture similar to that of bract. Flowers sessile, opposite, in pairs or solitary and accompanied by a rudimentary secund flower in bract axil; calyx 5-lobed, 4 lobes subequal, narrowly lanceolate, 4-4.5 mm long, posterior lobe reduced, filiform, 2.5-3 mm long, all glabrate or puberulous with a mixture of eglandular and glandular trichomes, margin ciliolate; corolla white to pale mauve, 11-13(-14) mm long, puberulous, tube cylindrical, 6-8 mm long, 0.5 mm in diam. at base, slightly enlarged to 1.25 mm at 1 mm above base, then slightly constricted, 2 mm wide at mouth, upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, 5-6 x 1.5-2 mm, entire at apex, lower lip ± erect, 5.5 mm long, lobes oblong to narrowly obovate, apically rounded, limb with conspicuous violet striations; stamens exserted 3-4 mm beyond mouth of corolla, anther thecae superposed, subequal, vertically attached to connective, not conspicuously apiculate, filament flattened; pistil equaling stamens, style puberulous, stigma minute, 2-lobed. Capsule clavate, 7-7.5 x 2 x 1.5 mm, puberulous; seeds reddish brown, subspheric, 2 x 1.75 x 1 mm, surface and margin covered with knoblike papillae.
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