Bushy herb or soft shrublet 0.2-0.5(-0.8) m tall with few to many erect or ascending stems arising annually from a perennial woody rootstock; stems slender, sparingly branched, densely beset with leaves and short leafy shoots, densely stellate-pubescent, often with a yellowish tinge. Leaves sessile; blade somewhat ericoid, linear to linear-lanceolate(occasionally ovate near base of stem), 5-10(-15) x 1-2(-5) mm, coriaceous, upper surface stellate-scabrid, under-surface usually yellowish stellate-tomentose, margin revolute, entire. Inflorescence simple, 50-110 mm long; verticils 4-6-flowered, in the axils of persistent somewhat leaf-like bracts, 4-7 x 2-3 mm. Calyx 5-6 mm long at maturity, stellate-hispid. Corolla white, often tinged with mauve, 12-16 mm long; tube 10-12 mm long, tubular, 2.5 mm wide, often slightly constricted at the throat; lower lip 2-4 mm long. Stamens shortly exserted, not or scarcely exceeding the lower lip; upper pair attached below the middle of the tube, filaments puberulous near the base; lower pair united only near the base or to about half their length. Stigma shortly bifid.
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