stem erect, 5–6 ft. high, thick and fleshy, tapering upwards, tubercled throughout, each tubercle armed with a pair of long straight spreading spines; leaves crowded at the summit, obovate-oblong to oblong, obtuse or acute, shortly attenuate at the base, wavy, 4–5 in. long, 2–2 1/2 in. broad, densely velvety on both sides, yellowish in the dry state; secondary nerves very slender, oblique, 1 1/2–2 lin. distant; petiole indistinct; flowers in scanty cymes from the axils of the leaves, on short villous peduncles; bracts oblong, acute, 6 lin. long, villous, with membranous margins; pedicels very short; calyx 4–5 lin. long; sepals resembling the bracts in structure and shape; corolla reddish, tinged with yellow and green, tubular, slightly widened upwards, loosely pubescent without; tube about 1 in. long, silky just above the stamens and along five lines below them; lobes ovate-elliptic, obtuse, 3 lin. long; stamens inserted 3 1/2 lin. above the corolla base, 3 lin. long. null
