Herbs or subshrubs, to 1.5 m tall, gregarious, isophyllous. Stems ± 4-angled, sulcate, glabrous. Petiole to 5 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, elliptic, broadly elliptic, or suborbicular, 5.5-19 × 2.5-10 cm, glabrous, both surfaces densely covered with linear cystoliths, secondary veins 7-10 on each side of midvein and prominent, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin serrate, apex shortly caudate. Inflorescences axillary from apical axils, spikes, 1.5-5 cm, compact, 1-3 per axil; peduncle 0-1.3 cm; bracts broadly lanceolate, 11-12 × 3-4 mm, leathery, persistent, rust-colored scurfy pubescent, abaxially with black sessile glands, glabrescent, apex acuminate; bracteoles lanceolate, 8-9 mm, leathery, rust-colored tomentose, apex acuminate. Calyx 1.2-1.4 cm, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes narrowly lanceolate, with 2 lobes slightly longer than others, apex acuminate. Corolla purple to light blue, 3.5-4 cm, outside glabrous, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 3 mm wide for ca. 1 cm then ventricose and gradually widened to ca. 1.2 cm at mouth; lobes ovate, 5-6 × 5-6 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 4, included; filaments pilose, shorter pair ca. 2 mm, longer pair ca. 7 mm; anther thecae oblong, 2-2.5 mm. Ovary sparsely hirsute at tip; style ca. 1.7 cm; stigma hirsute. Capsule fusiform, 1.5-2 cm, pilose at tip, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, ca. 3 × 3 mm, appressed pubescent. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Nov.
Home