a low, branched shrub, 1–2 ft. high; branches erect, glabrous when adult; leaves densely crowded, in whorls of 4–6, erect, spreading, or somewhat reflexed, with incurved mucronate apex, glabrous, 3 1/2–7 lin. long, 1/2–1 lin. broad; spike ovoid-cylindric, 7–12 lin. long, 5–7 lin. in diam., with a densely silky-pubescent axis persisting after the fall of the flowers; flowers white; flowering bract linear-acuminate, mucronate, sheathing towards the base, villous along the margins of the sheath and below the acumen, 4 lin. long, 1 lin. broad; bracteoles falcate, acuminate, sheathing towards the base, keeled, villous in the upper two-thirds, 2 1/2–3 lin. long, 1 lin. broad; calyx tubular, cartilaginous, brown, glabrous, 5-toothed; tube indistinctly 5-nerved, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long; teeth narrowly deltoid, acute, villous along the margins, with a single distinct median nerve, 1/2 lin. long, 1/4 lin. broad at the base; corolla-tube glabrous, 1 1/2–2 lin. long; lobes linear with a single median nerve, silky-villous along the margins and on the inner face or with only a few long white hairs, 2 1/4–2 1/2 lin. long, 1/4 lin. broad; stamens 2 lin. long; style 2–3 lin. long. null
