Shrubs, 0.2-1 m tall or slightly taller; branches slender, gray to pale brown, puberulent, bark thin, usually peeling off when old. Petiole short, 1-3 mm; leaf blade papery or thinly leathery, lanceolate or oblong, sometimes elliptic or subovate, usually 0.7-2.5(-3) × 0.3-1(-1.7) cm, adaxially scabrid or irregularly wrinkled and sparsely strigose, abaxially subglabrous or pubescent or hispid along midrib, base attenuate or cuneate, margins revolute, apex acuminate, subacute, or obtuse; lateral veins ca. 3 pairs, inconspicuous on both surfaces; stipules broadly triangular, 1.5-2 mm, cuspidate with a stiff apiculus. Flowers sessile, usually 3 fascicled and terminal on branches, rarely axillary on upper part of branchlets; bracteoles hyaline, ovate, 3-4.5 mm, 1/2-2/3 connate, pilose outside, lobes subtriangular, with a stiff apiculus at apex, subequal to calyx in length. Calyx tube ca. 2.5 mm; lobes subovate, ca. (0.7-)1.3-1.5 mm, densely shortly ciliate, obtuse or shortly acuminate. Corolla purplish red, funnelform, (9-)11-14(-20) mm; tube slender, often curved, puberulent outside; lobes subovate, narrowly triangular, or lanceolate, 2-4 mm, apex incurved. Short-styled flowers: stamens slightly exserted, anthers linear; style included. Long-styled flowers: stamens included, anthers linear-oblong; style slightly exserted. Style with 4 or 5 linear lobes of stigma. Seed aril reticulate, free from testa. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Oct.