A small shrub. Stems robust, erect or weak and flexuous, diffusely branched, branches obtusely 4-angled, more or less scabrid; nodes with 1–2 short erect bristles. Leaves 3–5 in. by 1–2 in., ovate, acute, 5–7-nerved, sparsely strigose above, pale and nearly glabrous (with few microscopic hairs) beneath; petiole 1/6– 1/4 in. Heads few-flowered; outer bracts leafy, variable in size and shape; inner oblong, acute, membranous, crinite with long hairs towards the base, persistent. Calyx-tube 1/3 in., quite glabrous, except a few bristles at the very base; lobes lanceolate, acuminate, two-thirds as long as the tube, persistent, edges scarcely ciliate, back often scabrid. Petals broad. Anthers of long stamens upwards of 1/3 in., connective nearly as long; connective of short stamens shortly produced. Capsule membranous, 5-valved, with an apical ring of bristles at the tip.
