Herbs annual or biennial. Rhizomes slender, trailing. Stems erect, 30-100 cm, densely retrorse puberulent, purple with age. Lower stem leaves early deciduous; petiole of mid stem leaves less than 1 cm; blade oblong to ovate, 2.5-4 × 1.5-2 cm, herbaceous, puberulent, abaxially gray-green, glandular, base cuneate, 3-partite 1/3-2/3 of leaf, apex acuminate. Verticillasters 2-12-flowered, to 1.5 cm in diam., in widely spaced long spikes; floral leaves subsessile or short petiolate, reduced toward apex, linear to linear-lanceolate, 2-3 cm × 5-8 mm, base cuneate, margin entire or remotely 1-or 2-dentate, apex acuminate; bracteoles spiny, spreading or slightly reflexed, puberulent, 3-5 mm. Flowers sessile. Calyx turbinate slightly dilated at middle, urceolate in fruit, ca. 4 mm, gray-green, puberulent; anterior teeth subulate, 2.5-3 mm, apex spinescent, projected; posterior teeth equal, triangular, 1.5-2 mm, straight, apex spinescent. Corolla white or purple-red, 7-8 mm; tube glabrous except for finely white pilose middle, sparsely fine pilose inside, 4-5 mm; limb finely white pilose; upper lip straight, ovate, concave; lower lip spreading, middle lobe obcordate, apex 2-lobulate, margin membranous; lateral lobes ovate. Nutlets chestnut brown, ovoid, triquetrous, ca. 2.5 mm, base cuneate, apex truncate, dotted. Fl. Sep, fr. Oct.