Suffrutex with 3–6 slender stems 17–30 cm tall from a fairly slender ± horizontal rhizome; glabrous, or stems covered with dense short spreading rather bristly hairs and also some longer appressed ones.Leaves opposite, or mostly in whorls of 3 or 4, drying dark brownish-green or yellow-green (as in aluminium accumulators) usually ± subcoriaceous; blades 4.2–16 × 1.8–5.7 cm, obovate to obovate-oblong or elliptic, those of the lowest whorls rounded, others obtusely to subacutely shortly acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrous or with rather sparse yellowish bristly hairs on both surfaces, which in no way obscure the surface; petioles distinct, 5–20 mm long, bristly pubescent; stipules 4–5 mm long, triangular at the base, drawn out at the apex, glabrous or bristly pubescent.Inflorescences borne in the lower axils, including the lowest from which the leaves have fallen or were never fully developed, few to c. 40-flowered, much branched, up to 4 cm long; peduncles (5)10–20 mm long; secondary cymose branches sometimes elongate, up to 30 mm long with the flowers spaced; pedicels 3–7 mm long; bracts and bracteoles 3–7 × 0.5 mm, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate.Calyx tube globose, about 1 mm in diameter, bristly pubescent; lobes leaf-like, 0.8–2.5(5) × 0.3–0.8 mm, narrowly oblong, elliptic or lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely bristly pubescent.Corolla slender, acuminate in bud; red or greenish, bristly pubescent or glabrous; tube 3–4 mm long; lobes 4–5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, reflexed or sometimes probably erect, apex acuminate to shortly tailed.Ovary 2-locular, filled with dark-coloured material.Fruits 25–30 × 15–20 mm, oblong, subglobose or pyriform, containing (1)2 pyrenes, each 12 × 6 mm, glabrous.
