Soft shrub 1-1.5 m tall, highly aromatic; stems several from a perennial woody rootstock, sparingly branched, grey pubescent. Leaves shortly petiolate; blade ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 60-90 x 25-30 mm, both surfaces densely and coarsely stellate velvety, tending to fold along the midrib and then somewhat falcate, apex acute, base cuneate, margin regularly serrate in the upper two-thirds; petiole up to 4 mm long. Inflorescence a large lax panicle up to 600 x 250 mm; verticils 3-6-flowered, 20 mm or more apart; bracts caducous, broadly ovate, acute, 6-8 mm long with a white margin and patches of white tomen-tum. Calyx up to 7 mm long, glandular-hispid, setose in the throat becoming swollen and narrow at the mouth when in the fruiting stage. Corolla purple, 17-18 mm long; tube 11-12 mm long, widening to 5-6 mm at the mouth; upper lip a small appendage, 1 mm long; lower lip 5-6 mm long, horizontal. Stamens exserted well beyond the lower lip, curved upwards; upper pair attached below the middle of the corolla tube, puberulous near the base; lower pair united to near the apex. Stigma bifid.
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