Herbs to 40 cm tall; stems erect, subquadrangular, glabrous to puberulous, the hairs restricted to 2 lines in some. Leaves ovate, 4-20 cm long, 2-10 cm wide, apically acuminate, basally rounded and then long attenuate, glabrous to sparingly strigose above, puberulous beneath, mostly on the costa and the veins, the cystoliths dense, more prominent above, the margins entire to crenu-late; sessile or with unwinged petioles to ca. 5 mm long, pubescent as on the stem. Inflorescences in lax, terminal spikes to 14 cm long, the rachis puberulous; bracts subulate, to 3 mm long, 1.25 mm wide basally, ciliolate; bracteoles similar though smaller; lowermost pair of bracts suborbicular, to 2 cm long, 1.5 cm wide; flowers sessile, solitary or in clusters of up to 5 in pseudowhorls of up to 1 cm apart on the rachis. Flowers with the calyx 5-merous, the segments subulate, to 3 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, glabrous; corolla purplish, glabrous, tube cylindrical, to 4 cm long, 1 mm in diameter, lobes of the limb elliptic, ca. 8 mm long, 5 mm broad; stamens barely exserted, the filaments 2.5 mm long, staminodes 0.5 mm long. Capsules 12-16 mm long, 3 mm wide, 1.5 mm thick; seeds 4, orbicular, flattened, 2 mm diameter, roughened.
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