Herbs perennial, to 40 cm tall, scarcely drying black. Stems 1 to several, erect or ± ascending, branched basally or unbranched; branches whorled, short, slender, with lines of hairs. Leaves in whorls of 4; petioles to 4 cm, winged, pubescent; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to linear-oblong, ca. 5 cm, glabrescent on both surfaces, pinnatisect; segments 6--8 pairs, pinnatipartite, dentate. Inflorescences interrupted; bracts leaflike basally, broadly ovate apically. Pedicel barely 1--2 mm. Calyx to 1 cm, membranous, slightly cleft anteriorly, whitish villous along veins; lobes 5, unequal, linear, ± entire, posterior one smaller than lateral lobes. Corolla purplish red, with yellowish tube apex and lower lip base; tube erect, ca. 1 cm; galea bent at a right angle; beak semicircular or S-shaped, ca. 1 cm, slender; lower lip ca. 1.1 X 1.4 cm, ciliate, middle lobe smaller than lateral lobes, hoodlike. Filaments glabrous. Fl. Aug, fr. Sep.