Plants perennial, erect, 25--90 cm tall, glabrous. Stems terete or obscurely quadrangular, woody at base, simple or weakly branched. Lower leaves scalelike, early deciduous. Upper leaves (2 or)3(or 4), in a terminal whorl, subsessile or petiole to 1 cm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, rarely elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 8--25 X 5--13 cm, base obtuse to subrounded, occasionally cuneate, apex acuminate; veins 6--9 pairs; veinlets prominent. Racemes distributed along stem under leaf whorl, 6--9 cm, 3--10-flowered; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 3--4 mm. Pedicel 0.6--1.5 cm. Calyx lobes ovate, 2--3 X ca. 1.3 mm, minutely glandular, especially inside, apex acuminate. Corolla white to pale yellow, parted nearly to base; lobes narrowly oblong, 5--8 X 2--3 mm, apex obtuse. Filaments connate basally into a ring, fused with corolla, free parts very short; anthers 4--5 mm, basifixed, opening by apical pores. Capsule globose, 5--7.5 mm in diam., indehiscent. Fl. Apr-May.