Shrubs to 2 m tall, isophyllous. Stems 4-angled, sulcate, glabrous. Petiole 1-5 cm, sulcate, subglabrous; leaf blade elliptic to broadly lanceolate, 13-30 × 5-11 cm, glabrous, abaxially paler, adaxially with numerous cystoliths, secondary veins 12-20 on each side of midvein and parallel, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, spikes, 2-8 cm, composed of 1-5 simple dense spikes arising at apex of peduncle forming a dense cluster of spikes; peduncle ca. 1 cm, puberulent and sometimes with warty excrescences; sterile bracts ovate at base of spike, ca. 1 × 0.5 cm; floral bracts lanceolate, 1.5-3 × 0.3-0.4 cm, abaxially minutely puberulent, apex finely acuminate and slightly incurved; bracteoles linear-lanceolate, ca. 2 cm, minutely puberulent, apex acuminate. Flowers imbricate on rachis. Calyx 1.7-2.3 cm, somewhat accrescent and sometimes becoming gland-tipped pilose at maturity, 5-lobed almost to base; lobes linear-lanceolate, thinly puberulent, apex finely acuminate. Corolla purple, 3.5-4 cm, straight, outside sparsely pilose, inside glabrous except for trichomes retaining style; tube basally cylindric and ca. 3 mm wide for ca. 1.4 cm then gradually widened to ca. 1.4 cm at mouth; lobes orbicular, ca. 6 mm in diam. Stamens 4, included; filaments glabrous, shorter pair ca. 2 mm, longer pair ca. 5 mm; anther thecae oblong, ca. 3.5 × 1 mm; pollen type 3. Ovary sparsely gland-tipped pilose at tip; style ca. 3.5 cm, pilose. Capsule ca. 20 × 3 mm, glabrous or with a very few apical trichomes, 4-seeded. Seeds ovate in outline, 3-5 × 2-4 mm, densely appressed pubescent. Fl. Oct-Jan, fr. Mar.
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