Plants perennial; taproot thick; caudex erect, branched, thick and woody, producing tufts of leaves. Stems erect, branched distally, with 2-4 pairs of reduced leaves, 15-50 cm; flowering shoots usually subscapose, coarsely pubescent with hairs colorless, septate, and long, viscid-glandular, especially distally. Leaves mostly basal; basal long-petiolate, blade oblanceolate to elliptic, 6-15 cm × 10-30 mm, narrowed to base, not fleshy; cauline few, sessile, reduced distally, blade lanceolate, 0.8-4 cm × 3-8 mm, not fleshy. Inflorescences thyrsate, subscapose, rarely simple, (3-)5-12(rarely more)-flowered, open, bracteate, bracteolate, densely pubescent, glandular, viscid; alternate branches often suppressed or developing unevenly; proximal nodes often with single flower; bracts and bracteoles resembling stem leaves but much reduced. Pedicels 4-2 times length of calyx. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, veins parallel, those of lobes broadened distally, tubular in flower, 10-13 × 2.5-4 mm, campanulate-ovate in fruit, broadest near middle and contracted towards mouth, not contracted proximally, 12-18 × 5-8 mm, with pale commissures, lobes 5, erect, narrowly lanceolate, 4-6 mm, margins narrow, membranous proximally, apex blunt, with glandular hairs; petals 11/ 2-2 times longer than calyx tube; corolla pink, clawed, claw equaling calyx tube, limb obovate, deeply 2-lobed, 5-10 mm, appendages 2, linear, ca. 1.5 mm; stamens exserted, shorter than petals; styles 3-5, included in calyx, ± equaling calyx or corolla. Capsules conic to ellipsoid, equaling calyx lobes, opening by 6-10 recurved teeth; carpophore 1-2 mm. Seeds dark brown, reniform, 1-1.5 mm, prominently papillate; papillae larger around margins. 2n = 48.
Home