Plants perennial; taproot stout; caudex branched, woody. Stems usually several-many, rarely 1, erect, leafy, 10-55 cm, base often decumbent with marcescent leaf bases, scabrous-puberulent to pubescent, usually ± viscid-glandular distally, rarely densely so. Leaves 2 per node; basal petiolate, blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3-10 cm × 2-13 mm (including petiole), apex acute, glabrous to scabrous-puberulent or softly pubescent, petiole often ciliate; cauline sessile or petiolate, connate proximally, reduced distally, blade linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2-10 cm × 2-8 mm. Inflorescences cymose with elongate ascending branches, open, flowers (1-)3 to many, bracteate, bracteolate; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate, 3-20 mm, apex acuminate. Pedicels 4-3 times longer than calyx, scabrous-puberulous to pubescent and glandular, ± viscid. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, tubular in flower, ± clavate and contracted around carpophore in fruit, 10-14 × 4-6 mm, margins dentate, veins parallel, green (rarely purplish), with pale commissures, lobes ascending, lanceolate, 2-3 mm, margins usually with obtuse, membranous border, apex spreading, shortly glandular-pubescent, usually viscid; corolla off-white (greenish) to dusky pink, clawed, claw equaling calyx, limb obovate, 2-lobed, 3-7 mm, shorter than claw, rarely with small lateral teeth, appendages 2, usually lacerate, 1-2 mm; stamens ca. equaling petals; styles 3(-4), often much longer than petals. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, slightly longer than calyx, opening by 6 (or 8) recurved teeth; carpophore 2-5 mm. Seeds dark reddish brown to black, reniform, ca. 1.5 mm, papillate, with larger papillae around margins. 2n = 48.
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