Herbs, perennial, epipetric, rarely terrestrial, rhizomatous, stemless. Leaves many, basal; leaf blade puberulent to woolly, rarely glabrous or glabrescent, base cuneate to subcordate. Inflorescences sometimes umbel-like, lax or dense, axillary, 1-to many-flowered cymes; bracts 2, rarely apparently absent or 3, opposite, rarely whorled. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base; segments equal. Corolla purple to blue or white or yellow to red, zygomorphic, inside glabrous or puberulent; tube campanulate-cylindric to broadly tubular, sometimes ampliate basally, throat sometimes constricted, 1-4 X longer than limb, 2-8(-12) mm in diam.; limb slightly 2-lipped to 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, slightly shorter than to nearly as long as abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed to 3-sect, lobes equal or subequal, apex rounded to acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near base to near middle, included, rarely exserted; anthers basifixed, rarely dorsifixed, free, thecae parallel, not confluent, seldom horseshoe-shaped, then thecae divaricate and confluent at apex, dehiscing longitudinally, rarely transversely; connective not projecting; staminode 1, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube, rarely absent. Disc ringlike. Ovary oblong, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigmas 2, equal, oblate, undivided or rarely 2-lobed, or stigma 1, terminal, oblate to capitate, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, oblanceolate-oblong to oblong, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.
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