suffruticose, branched, apparently annual, dusky when dry, 1–1 1/2 ft. high; branches rather slender, wiry, sub-terete, leafy, divaricate, with rather short whitish and spreading pubescence, glabrescent below; branchlets slender, herbaceous; leaves opposite or the upper alternate, elliptical or obovate, narrowed to the obtuse apex, wedge-shaped at the base, membranous, toothed on the upper half, entire towards the inconspicuously 3-nerved base, strigulose with short rather thick whitish hairs, minutely glandular-papillose, 1/3–1 3/4 in. long, 1/10– 5/6 in. broad; petioles up to 1/3 in. long;; floral leaves obovate or narrowly elliptical, obtuse, with a few small teeth above, below entire and adhering to the calyx, puberulous, shortly ciliate, 1/2– 2/3 in. long; flowers sessile or subsessile, few or comparatively distant, 1 1/4–2 in. long, scarlet or chocolate outside, white within; spikes short or elongated; calyx oblong, bilabiate half-way down, puberulous, shortly ciliate, 3/8 in. long, or in fruit somewhat more; teeth 5, lanceolate or ovate-triangular, short, puberulous, shortly ciliate, subacute; corolla-tube shortly pubescent and glandular outside, slender; limb spreading, about 2/3– 3/4 in. in diam.; segments 5, obovate, bifid, about 1/4– 1/3 in. long; mouth pilose; stamens didynamous, glabrous; filaments short or very short, filiform, inserted on the upper part of the corolla-tube; anthers all perfect, one pair more or less exserted, the other included; style filiform, shortly exserted; capsule about 2/5 in. long. null
