Erect herbs or shrubs to 2(3) m tall; sometimes unbranched, the branches and stems slender, scurfy tomentulose with greyish indumentum, the hairs weak, blackish, several celled, sometimes branched; stems mostly terete. Leaves op-posite, reduced in size upwards, sessile, ovate, apically obtuse, basally truncate to auriculate, the margins with numerous, sharp, sometimes callose teeth, mostly 2-4 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, somewhat coriaceous, both sides velutinous above with short whitish hairs, the venation obscure above, prominent beneath, the midvein and 2-4 strongly ascending lateral veins on each side conspicuously elevated. Inflorescences terminal racemes, at first congested, elongating with maturity, the pedicels tomentose, 3-4 mm long. Flowers with the calyx ca. 7 mm long, cupular, glandular tomentose, 10-ribbed, 4-5 lobed, the lobes deltoid, 2-3 mm long, sometimes somewhat acuminate; corolla red, tubular, 3-4 cm long, 5-7 mm wide, pulverulent tomentose with dark hairs, 2-lipped; stamens 2, the lower pair of anthers held against the upper lip, tomentose, the 2 staminodes reduced to tufts of hairs; stigma punctiform. Capsule ovoid, black, apiculate, ca. 2 cm long, ca. 8 mm wide; seeds oblong, ca. 1.5 mm long, with a stramineous, deeply reticulate testa.
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