Plants perennial, rhizomatous; caudex thick, with many rhizomatous, creeping, branched, slender subterranean shoots, terminating in tight tufts of leaves and erect flowering stems. Stems simple, 5-15 cm, pubescent and viscid, with stipitate glands. Leaves: basal with blade 1-veined, oblanceolate, broadly spatulate, 1-4 cm × 2-8 mm, apex obtuse to acute, glandular-puberulent throughout, rarely subglabrous adaxially; cauline in 3-6 pairs, sessile, reduced distally, blade lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or oblanceolate, 2-4 cm × 2-8 mm, apex ± acute, glandular-puberulent throughout. Inflorescences usually with solitary terminal flower, sometimes cymose, to 8-flowered, open. Pedicels erect or angled near tip with flowers slightly nodding, 1-3 times longer than calyx, glandular-puberulent, often densely so. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, campanulate, not contracted proximally around carpophore, 15-20 × 4-8 mm, papery, margins dentate, veins parallel, usually purple tinged, with pale commissures; lobes ovate, 3-5 mm, glandular-puberulent, midrib triangular, margins purple tinged, broad, membranous, apex obtuse; corolla bright pink, clawed, claw equaling calyx, broad and ligulate but abruptly contracted into limb, limb broadly cuneate, shallowly to deeply 2-4-lobed, 5-15 mm, lobes broad or narrow, appendages absent or to 2 mm, margins erose; stamens slightly longer than corolla claw; stigmas 3(-5), slightly longer than corolla claw. Capsules equaling calyx, opening by 6 (or 8 or 10) lanceolate teeth; carpophore 1-2.5 mm. Seeds brown, broadly reniform, flattened, 2-2.5 mm, rugose, more coarsely so on margins. 2n = 96.
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