Perennial shrub 1-1,7 m tall with thick horizontal tuberous roots; stems slender, sparingly branched, terete to obscurely 4-angled, grey-tomentose. Leaves subsessile to shortly petiolate; blade subcoriaceous, ovate to elliptic, 35—90 x 25—70 mm, upper surface bullate, grey-green, under-surface reticulate, grey-tomentose with multicelluÂlar hairs, short gland-tipped hairs and reddish brown gland-dots; apex obtuse to rounded, base subtruncate, margin coarsely crenate. Inflorescence terminal, on slender peduncles up to 300 mm long, simple or with 1—3 pairs of basal branches, racemes slender, up to 350 mm long; flowers densely clustered in 12—20-flowered verticils spaced 3—25 mm apart; bracts early deciduous. Calyx 4 mm long in fruit, subequally 5-toothed, crisped tomentose and gland-dotted, the uppermost tooth slightly larger than the rest. Corolla violet to mauve-purple, crisped-tomentose without, c. 10 mm long; tube curved upwards and exÂpanding towards the throat; upper lip short, hooded; lower lip boat-shaped, 4—6 mm long. Stamens shortly united at the base, 7—8 mm long. Fig. 26: 2.
