Shrub to 5 m; stems reddish-brown, poorly branched, usually 6-angled, sometimes minutely winged, glabrous to pubescent around nodes and along ridges. Leaves opposite, with petiole 1.5–9 cm, blade ovate, paler green beneath, 3–11.5 cm long, 2.7–11.3 cm wide, base cordate, margins dentate to crenate to minutely toothed, apex acuminate, lamina thin, glabrous to sub-glabrous, glandular-punctate beneath, usually with 3 distinct and 2 less distinct veins originating from base. Inflorescence a fairly lax leafy corymb borne on a pubescent, axillary peduncle, 4–12 cm long, usually conspicuously trichotomously branched; capitula 6–9 mm long, 1.5–2 mm diameter; individual stalks of capitula 2–9 mm, pubescent; phyllaries pale green, linear-lanceolate, boat-shaped, sometimes swollen at base, 4–7 mm long, inner 2 wider than outer 2, glabrous to pubescent, more so towards apex, 3-veined, outer 2 consistently more hairy and sometimes glandular, chaffy. Corolla 3–4 mm long, white, glandular, especially at lobes, lobes accounting for at least 3/4 of limb; anther appendages 1–2 times longer than wide, protruding beyond corolla lobes; style-arms exserted for ± 2 mm. Achenes fawn to black, 3–4 mm long, with scattered glands; carpopodium not evident or obscurely so; pappus 2.5–4 mm long, barbellate, connate at base.
