a plant of variable size from 3 in. to more than 1 ft. high; rootstock woody, descending; leaves variable, numerous, reaching 5 in. long, 1/2–5 lin. broad, linear, obtuse, acute or acuminate, entire or remotely dentate, fleshy or coriaceous, rugose, usually coarsely hairy, but sometimes glabrous, sessile; peduncles erect, adpressedly hairy, conspicuously terete, reaching in well-grown plants 6 in. or more long; spikes 1–3 in. long, cylindric, dense; bracts 1 lin. long, broadly ovate, acuminate, with ciliate membranous margins and a thick keel; sepals 1 1/4 lin. long, ovate or elliptic, obtuse, with ciliate membranous margins and a strong keel, hairy on the back; corolla-tube 3/4–1 lin. long, hairy outside; lobes 1/2– 3/4 lin. long, ovate, acute, deflexed; filaments 1 lin. long, filiform; anthers 1 lin. long (including a long apiculus); style 1 lin. long; capsules 1 1/2 lin. long, ovoid-oblong, obtuse, beaked by the remains of the style, circumscissilely dehiscing below the middle, 2–3- (rarely 4-) seeded, 1 of the seeds when 3 usually infertile; seeds reaching 1 lin. long, ellipsoid-oblong, obtuse at both ends, rounded on the back, with flattened face, reddish brown. null
