A tall glaucous-green glabrous herb with a short stock and strong branched roots; stems 2–4 or sometimes more, slender, 1 1/2–3 ft. high, sometimes sparingly branched near the middle, terete below with long internodes, quadrangular above with shorter internodes. Leaves all small, scale-like, closely adpressed to the stem, the lower ovate or oblong-ovate, acuminate, only 1 1/2–2 1/2 lin. long and 1 lin. broad, opposite. Spikes very slender, 4–12 in. long, remotely-flowered below; bracts opposite, lanceolate, 1 1/2–2 3/4 lin. long, acuminate, glumaceous, concave; bracteoles subulate, 1–1 3/4 lin. long. Calyx 3 1/2–4 lin. long, narrow, about 15-nerved, glabrous except for a few minute hairs on the margins of the teeth, rigid, 4-toothed (or sometimes with the uppermost tooth present but very minute); teeth narrowly lanceolate, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long, acuminate, rigid. Corolla dark yellow, glabrous outside; tube 4–5 lin. long, narrow, slightly curved and inflated above the calyx; limb 2-lipped, both lips being strongly recurved in the dried state; upper lip deeply 3-lobed; lateral lobes lanceolate, 2/3 lin. long; uppermost lobe much broader, shortly bifid; lower lip linear, 1–1 1/2 lin. long. Style 1 1/2 lin. long. Capsule narrowly oblong, about 3 lin. long.
