Plants perennial; taproot thick; caudex branched. Stems erect, scarcely branched, 20-100 cm, glabrous. Leaves: blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 3-16 cm × 3-12 mm, ± fleshy, base tapering into short petiole, apex acute, glabrous except for few cilia at base. Inflorescences cymose, terminal and axillary, elongate, 1-3-flowered, open, bracteate, bracteolate, pedunculate; peduncle slender, 2-10 cm; bracts and bracteoles much-reduced, linear-lanceolate, often ciliate. Pedicels slender, 2-10 cm. Flowers: calyx tubular, 17-22 × 4-5 mm in flower, broadening to 7 mm in fruit but contracted around carpophore, glabrous, lobes lanceolate, 3-4 mm, margins membranous and ciliate near broad, obtuse apex; corolla scarlet, 2-21/ 2 times longer than calyx, limb lanceolate, narrowed into claw, 4-5 mm wide, margins entire or shallowly dentate, appendages linear, 4-5 mm; stamens exserted; styles 3, exserted. Capsules clavate, equaling calyx, opening by 6 teeth; carpophore 3-4 mm. Seeds brown, broadly reniform, 2-2.3 mm, rugose. 2n = 48.
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