Subshrubs or perennial herbs, to 1 m tall, much branched, anisophyllous. Stems decumbent to ascending, pilose, glabrescent. Petiole 1-3 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, elliptic-ovate, or elliptic, 4-14 × 1.5-9 cm, abaxially pubescent along veins but often glabrescent, adaxially sparsely pilose and with numerous cystoliths, secondary veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, base attenuate and oblique, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, pedunculate heads, ovoid to ellipsoid, 1.5-2 × 1-3 cm, 1-3 per axil, sometimes forming a panicle of heads with reduced leaves; peduncle 1-6 cm, glabrous or pubescent, simple or branched, sometimes with a sterile bract at branching point; outer floral bracts sterile, ovate, 1.5-2.3 cm, not overtopping capitula, concave, deciduous as flowers open, pubescent or glabrous, margin crenate, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate; inner bracts oblong-elliptic, 1.3-1.6 cm, margin entire or with 1 or 2 teeth; bracteoles oblong-elliptic, 7-11 mm, caducous, pilose. Calyx pale green, ca. 1.2 cm, accrescent to ca. 2 cm in fruit, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear-oblanceolate, equal, outside pubescent, margin ciliate. Corolla blue, 4.3-5.5 cm, straight, outside thinly pilose, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and narrow for ca. 1.5 cm then gradually widened to ca. 1.5 cm at mouth; lobes oblong, ca. 5 × 4 mm. Stamens 4, included; filaments glabrous, shorter pair ca. 2 mm and nodding, longer pair 7-8 mm and unequal; anther thecae spherical, ca. 1.2 mm in diam., incurved; pollen type 3. Ovary gland-tipped pilose; style ca. 3.5 cm, thinly pilose. Capsule oblong, 1.4-2 cm, apical half gland-tipped pilose, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm, pubescent; areola small. Fl. Sep-Feb.
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