Herbs perennial. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole winged, usually 1/5--1/2 as long as leaf blade at fruiting; leaf blade elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, 10--30 X 2--4(--7) cm, abaxially pubescent mainly along veins, adaxially pubescent, base attenuate, margin remotely hydathode-denticulate, apex rounded. Scapes (15--)20--45(--60) cm, glabrous, scarcely farinose toward apex; spikes narrowly pyramidal, 2--5 cm at anthesis, elongating to 10--18 cm in fruit, densely flowered; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1--2 mm. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx bright crimson when young, becoming pink, globose-campanulate, 4--5 mm, parted below middle; lobes ovate to ovate-lanceolate, apex acute or occasionally dentate. Corolla rose-purple; tube 7--9 mm; limb 5--6 mm wide; lobes ovate to elliptic, 4--5 X ca. 4 mm, apex acute. Pin flowers: stamens ca. 1.5 mm above base of corolla tube; style ca. as long as tube. Thrum flowers with positions reciprocal. Capsule globose, slightly shorter than calyx. Fl. Jul. 2n = 20@.