Perennial herb, sparsely branched, up to 1 m tall. Leaves alternate or opposite, lanceolate to ovate, up to about 7 cm long and 8-22 mm broad, sessile or subsessile to slightly sheathing at the base, glabrous. Inflorescence racemose, simple or with few lateral branches from the axils of uppermost leaves; racemes up to 20 cm long, dense, glabrous or minutely pubescent; rhachis often ribbed; bracts linear-lanceolate, longer than the pedicels, 3-8 mm long. Calyx glabrous or puberulous outside, divided nearly to base; segments oblong, 3-4 mm long, obtuse, slightly keeled towards base. Corolla dirty-white, 3-4 mm long, tubular in the lowest 1/3; lobes oblong, obtuse, irregularly minutely toothed round apex, slightly hooded. Stamens inserted on corolla at base of the lobes with very short filaments, the bases of which form a thickening round the corolla tube; anthers versatile, apiculate. Ovary globose with a style about 1 mm long, persistent, slender and slightly elongated in fruit.
