Plants perennial; taproot long, stout; caudex branched, woody, producing several erect flowering shoots. Stems erect, simple proximal to inflorescence, 25-80 cm, puberulent, glandular distally. Leaves in 5-7 pairs proximal to inflorescence, sessile, blade lanceolate, narrowed to base, apex acute; proximal withering, becoming smaller in inflorescence, 2-5 cm × 3-10 mm, sparsely scabrous-pubescent on both surfaces. Inflorescences cymose, terminal, pedunculate, 1-3-flowered, open, bracteate, bracteolate, 10-25 cm, pubescence dense, hairs septate-glandular, septa colorless; cymes paired at each node; peduncle ascending, 1-3 cm; bracts and bracteoles leaflike, reduced distally to 2 mm. Pedicels not bent in fruit, 2 to equaling calyx. Flowers nocturnal; calyx prominently 10-veined, campanulate, 12-14 × 4-6 mm in flower, becoming obovate to obconic and to 10 mm broad in fruit, not contracted proximally around carpophore, margins dentate, glandular-pubescent, veins parallel, with pale commissures, lobes lanceolate-acuminate, 3-4 mm, membranous, margins narrow, apex blunt, veins green; corolla pale pink, greenish abaxially, clawed, claw equaling calyx, limb oblong, deeply 2-lobed, 4-6 mm, appendages 2, oblong, ca. 1 mm; stamens equaling petals; stigmas 3, equaling petals. Capsules obovoid, equaling calyx and often splitting it at maturity, opening by 5 teeth; carpophore 3-4 mm. Seeds black, reniform, 2-3 mm, tuberculate; tubercles conic, in concentric rows. 2n = 48.
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