Perennial shrub 1-1.7 m tall with thick horizontal tuberous roots; stems slender, sparingly branched, terete to obscurely 4-angled, grey-tomentose. Leaves subsessile to shortly petiolate; blade subcoriaceous, ovate to elliptic, 35-90 x 25-70 mm, upper surface bullate, grey-green, under-surface reticulate, grey-tomentose with multicellular hairs, short gland-tipped hairs and reddish brown gland-dots; apex obtuse to rounded, base subtruncate, margin coarsely crenate. Inflorescence terminal, on slender peduncles up to 300 mm long, simple or with 1-3 pairs of basal branches, racemes slender, up to 350 mm long; flowers densely clustered in 12-20-flowered verticils spaced 3-25 mm apart; bracts early deciduous. Calyx 4 mm long in fruit, subequally 5-toothed, crisped tomentose and gland-dotted, the uppermost tooth slightly larger than the rest. Corolla violet to mauve-purple, crisped-tomentose without, c. 10 mm long; tube curved upwards and expanding towards the throat; upper lip short, hooded; lower lip boat-shaped, 4-6 mm long. Stamens shortly united at the base, 7-8 mm long.
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