Perennials, to 1 m tall, stout, erect, straight, much branched, glandular hairy. Stems terete. Petiole 6-12 mm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, papery, 2-8 cm, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, spicate-racemose, dense, 6-20 cm; bracts narrowly lanceolate, shorter than calyx. Flowers subsessile. Calyx 5-6 mm, conspicuously 5-veined; lobes subulate-triangular, as long as tube, apex acute. Corolla yellow, outside with purple patches, sparsely hairy; tube ca. 2 X as long as calyx; lower lip long, conspicuously plicate; upper lip apically subtruncate, sometimes emarginate. Anthers long stalked. Style basally and apically hairy. Capsule narrowly ovoid, 5-6 mm, densely brown hirsute apically. Seeds yellow, ca. 0.5 mm, scabrous. Fl. and fr. Nov-Mar.