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Leaves opposite-decussate, subsessile to shortly petiolate; lamina 1–9 (11.5) × 0.5–3(3.4) cm, narrowly elliptic to elliptic, acute to obtuse at the apex, cuneate at the base, crenulate to serrate on the margin, usually only entire in the basal ¼ to 1/3, scattered to ± densely short hispid-strigose on the upper surface and hispid beneath with the hairs mainly on the nerves, ± glandular beneath, mostly light green and often paler beneath; nerves 5–7 pairs ascending, impressed above and raised beneath; petiole 0–5 mm long; the lowermost pair of leaves much smaller, relatively broader and less acute.
Stems annual or, in plants escaping annual fires, persisting for several years, erect, leafy, terete or subangular; indumentum hispid-strigose with patent or ± appressed tubercle based whitish hairs and small sessile glands, the setae markedly unequal acicular up to c. 2 mm long, very dense towards the stem and branch apices; annual stems slender, ± numerous, tufted, unbranched or shortly branched, rarely long branched from the base; older stems stouter, up to 5 mm or more in diameter at the base, ± branched, lower internodes up to 14.5 cm long.
Spikes densely many-flowered, up to 1.2 × 0.7–1.2 cm, broadly and shortly ovoid in flower, increasing to 2.2 cm long in fruit becoming ovoid-oblong to cylindric; peduncles solitary, rarely 2 per leaf axil, in the upper c. 6 nodes, ascending, (0.6)1–5(6.5) cm long, usually shorter than the subtending leaves, slender, glandular and densely strigose or pubescent.
Bracts appressed imbricate, 5–9 × 1.5–2.5 mm, longer than the flowers, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate to attenuate and subulate (the ensemble of the terminal part of the upper bracts forming a corona at the top of the flowering spikes), hispid and glandular outside, appressed setose within mainly towards the apex, persistent.
Corolla whitish, greenish-white to pale yellow, usually with a deep yellow centre, 2.5–4 mm long and narrowly funnel-shaped, the upper part of the tube densely spreading pubescent and glandular; limb not clearly 2-lipped, 1.5–2.6 mm wide, the largest lobe up to 1 mm long and wide.
Calyx 1–2 mm long, ± truncate at the apex or sometimes emarginate at the anterior face, thinly membranous, glabrous or sparsely setose along the anterior and posterior faces with a dense band of straight white setae on each side, ciliate at the upper margin.
Fruits enveloped in the thin brown papery calyx, white pubescent outside; mericarps 2–2.25 × 1.5–1.75 mm, ± hemispherical, brownish, glabrous and slightly shining on the outer face, flat and white on the commissural face.
A perennial herb or subshrub up to 1 m high from a stout woody rootstock, leaves strongly aromatic when crushed.