Herb, often woody at the base, or suffrutex, perennial, the stem usually erect, up to 1.2 m high, branched, the younger parts with short stellate hairs and/or hirsute with simple or stellate hairs. Leaves distichous, short-petiolate, the petiole 5-7 mm long, tomentose, the stipules conspicuous, narrowly ovate, attenuate- acuminate, 8-12 mm long and up to 4 mm wide, 3-to 5-to several-nerved, glabrous except the ciliate margins, persistent; blade narrowly ovate, often slightly asym-metric and obtuse or cuneate or slightly subcordate at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex, more or less unequally and rather sharply serrate, up to 7 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, usually 3-or sub-5-palminerved, appressed-hirsute with mostly sim-ple hairs on both sides, the indumentum denser beneath, the venation prominulous on the lower surface. Flowers axillary, solitary or usually glomerate, subsessile to short-pedicellate; calyx campanulate, sharply 5-angulate, 5-7 mm long, 10-ribbed, with long white hairs especially on veins and along margins, moderately accrescent, the lobes deltoid, long-acuminate, 2.5-3.5 mm long; petals obtriangular, strongly oblique, retuse at the apex, ca 8 mm long, yellow or whitish; androecium ca 4-4.5 mm long, the staminal tube ca 2.5 mm long, glabrous or nearly so; styles ca 5 mm long, connate basally. Mericarps 5, trigonous, 2-2.5 mm long, chartaceous, glabrous, the dorsum with the lower part rugose-reticulate, and with the upper part with 2 longitudinal low crests, these obtuse and terminating each into a small apiculum, the lateral walls reticulate; seeds trigonous, ca 1.5-1.7 mm long, minutely puberulus only around the hilum.
Roadsides, cultivated land, savannahs, brushy slopes, and coastal thickets. Deciduous forests, roadsides, river banks, disturbed vegetation, at elevations from 50-200 metres.
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