Delicate, erect or ascending annual herbs; stems producing roots in the basal part. Leaves spirally arranged, petioled, often unequal at the base. Flowers solitary, inserted on the midrib of the leaves. Calyx obliquely cup-shaped, 5-lobed. Corolla 5-lobed, dorsally split to the base, bilabiate, the 2 posterior lobes much prolonged, narrow, almost free. Stamens 5, connate; anthers curved, unequal; filaments free at the base. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; style filiform; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule obliquely obovoid, opening with valves at the top, thin-walled with prominent nerves. Seeds numerous, ellipsoid, verruculose or shiooth.
Damp, shady, humous or rocky places in the undergrowth of rain-forests, 300-1650 m, apparently rare.
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