Perennial subshrub 30–60 cm. tall, probably much branched from a woody base; stems grey-black with flaking epidermis, glabrous or pubescent in patches, leafless at the base, densely and closely covered with small sheaths formed at the nodes by persistent bases of stipules and leaves; internodes very short, mostly (1–)2–4 mm. long.. Leaves rather coriaceous, densely conferted; leaf-blades ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 0.6–1 cm. long, 2–5 mm. wide, subacute at the apex, rounded or cuneate at the base, glabrous or the margins shortly ciliate; petioles obsolete or scarcely 0.5 mm. long; stipules with sheathing base ± pubescent, fimbriae setiform, 2–3 mm. long.. Flowers geminate in small terminal heads, sessile.. Calyx ellipsoid, 1–2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, pilose with long white hairs or glabrescent; lobes 5, either 1 foliaceous and 4 small, or 2 foliaceous and 3 small, with several colleters between the small lobes; foliaceous lobes similar in texture to the leaves, lanceolate, 5–6 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, acute, glabrous or shortly ciliate; other lobes setiform, 1.5–2.5 mm.. Corolla pale pink or violet; buds with limb abruptly expanded into a subcylindrical head quite distinct from the filiform tube, the limb portion covered with long hairs particularly on the nerves; tube very slender, 6 mm. long, 0.2 mm. wide, glabrous; throat glabrous; lobes 5, lanceolate, 3.5–5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, covered with long hairs outside.. Stamens 5, exserted for a distance ± equalling the corolla-lobes; filaments glabrous.. Style filiform, stigma bilobed, lobes filiform 2–3.5 mm. long, the style and stigma together exserted the same distance as the stamens.. Immature fruit ellipsoid, 2.5 mm. long.. Immature seeds oblong, 2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide.
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