Plants perennial, rhizomatous; taproot stout, rhizomes thin, branching. Flowering shoots 4-10(-15) cm, softly pubescent. Leaves: cauline in 4-8 pairs, crowded; blade gray-green, oblanceolate to obovate, spatulate, 2.5-4.5 cm × 5-15 mm, longest near middle of stem, sparsely pubescent on both surfaces, reduced and bractlike on subterranean base. Inflorescences terminal, 1-3(-4)-flowered cymes, densely glandular-pubescent; bracts leaflike, (0.5-)0.7-1.1 cm. Pedicels ascending and straight, (5-)7-10 mm, glandular-pubescent. Flowers ca. 30 mm diam.; calyx purple tinged, distinctly 10-veined, tubular, inflated and expanding in fruit, 13-17 mm, densely glandular-pubescent, lobes lanceolate; corolla scarlet, clawed, limb carmine red, turning purple on drying, ± equally deeply 2-lobed, each lobe with lateral tooth, ca. 11 mm, glabrous, claw narrowly obtriangular, equaling calyx, appendages 2, prominent, petaloid, linear, truncate, 2.5-4.5 mm; stamens long-exserted; stigmas 3, long-exserted. Capsules ovoid to oblong, equaling calyx, (8-)12-15 mm; carpophore 0.5-1 mm. Seeds dark brown, reniform, 1.8-2 mm diam., strongly papillate. 2n = 72.
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