Shrub 3–4.5 m. tall; stems ± 4-angled, 2-grooved, swollen at the nodes and often 2-ribbed just below, glabrous, covered when older with dirty yellowish green ridged and almost peeling bark.. Leaf-blades elongate-oblong or subovate, 9–25 cm. long, (2.5–)4.5–9.5 cm. wide, acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, pubescent beneath with brownish hairs when very young, later glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10–11 on each side; petiole 0.6–2.5 cm. long; stipules ovate, 3 mm. long, apiculate, hairy around the margins.. Flowers many, in dense sessile axillary glomerules or on the older wood,? isostylous.. Calyx-tube cupular, 2 mm. long; limb irregularly lobulate, glabrous or pubescent; lobes 0.6–1 mm. long, 1–2.5 mm. wide or limb almost truncate.. Corolla white and pale violet; tube 2–4(?–8) mm. long, glabrous outside, throat densely hairy; lobes oblong, 2–2.8 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, acute, densely hairy inside.. Anthers ± exserted.. Ovary 4–5-locular; style 4.8(–9) mm. long, exserted; stigma-lobes oblong, 0.6 mm. long.. Fruit 3.5 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, strongly grooved between the pyrenes in dry state, crowned with 2 mm. long calyx-limb; pyrenes chestnut-brown, shaped like a bird’s head, 2.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, 1.2 mm. thick, dorsally strongly curved, ventrally excavated, basally pointed, somewhat furrowed.
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