Perennial, erect, branched herb, up to 80 cm high. Stem terete, becoming woody at base, set with short curved hairs. Leaves mostly obovate-oblong, 5-35 by 2-12 mm, subsessile, mucronate, with recurved margins shortly hairy at both sides, in transmitted light finely punctate-dotted. Racemes supra-axillary, often leaf-opposed, the free part 2-8 cm long. Bracts persistent, ± rhomboid, 1-2 mm long, hairy. Flowers 8-10 mm long, with purple crista and yellowish alae. Sepals mucronate, hairy on both sides, ciliate, the alae broadly ovate, flabellate-veined. Upper petals oblong, hairy inside in basal half; keel auriculate and there sometimes hairy, with 2 much-incised appendages. Filaments free for 1/8-⅓. Ovary ± quadrangular with rounded sides, apically notched, hairy all over; style straight in lower half, curved in upper half, subapically at inner side with 2 small, spaced, stigmatic lobes, slightly widened between the lobes. Capsule smaller than the alae, ± quadrangular, apically notched, with a narrow, membraneous, veined margin, hairy. Seeds ± globular, at micropylar side with an unequally 3-lobed aril, black, hairy.
Characteristic for areas subject to a strong dry season, in teak forests, between grass, several times on limestone, below 250 m, once at 700 m in Sumba.
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Teak forests, grassland, often on limestone, usually at elevations below 250 metres, but occasionally to 700 metres.
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