Herbs annual, 40--60 cm tall, drying black. Roots fibrous, fascicled. Stems erect, many branched or sometimes unbranched, glabrescent. Leaves sessile, lanceolate to linear, 2--5 cm X 3--10 mm, fleshy, shiny, sparsely long ciliate basally, ± entire, apex acute. Inflorescences 4--10 cm; bracts ciliate, proximal ones linear, longer than flowers, middle and distal ones ovate, shorter than flowers. Calyx 1--1.2 cm, membranous, woolly pubescent; lobes 5, unequal, triangular-lanceolate to triangular, entire, posterior one smallest. Corolla dark rose, 2.2--2.4 cm, glabrous; tube erect, 1.5--1.6 cm; galea 7--8 mm, apex truncate; lower lip 8--10 mm, middle lobe elliptic-ovate, ca. 4 mm, smaller than lateral pair. Filaments villous toward both ends; anthers apiculate. Capsule enclosed by calyx, ovoid, apex acuminate. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep.