Shrub, often scandent, much branched, glabrous; branches slender; bark brown, lenticellate, becoming greyish with age. Leaves ovate to elliptic-oblong, 3-8 (rarely to 11) cm long and 1-5-4 cm broad, base acute to obtuse, apex acute to acuminate; secondary nerves 6-9 on each side, often indistinct; petiole 6-10 mm long; axillary glands present. Inflorescence terminal, 1-3-flowered, appearing with the young leaves, glabrous; bracts linear-lanceolate, 6-9 mm long; pedicels 4-7 mm long. Flowers whitish to cream within the tube and on the inner side of the lobes, reddish purple without. Calyx glabrous, 1-1-5 cm long; sepals lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute to subacuminate, erect, with two tooth-like glands at the base of each sepal. Corolla glabrous without, puberulous within; tube cylindrical at the base for 4-6 mm, then broadly funnel-shaped for 1-2 cm; lobes produced into long, slender, pendulous, spirally twisted appendages 6-14 cm long; throat scales subulate 5-8 mm long. Stamens included; filaments 2-5-4 mm long, pubescent on the inner surface; anthers pollini-ferous in the upper half, lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, sagittate, acuminate with a subulate apiculus 1 mm long. Ovary of 2 free carpels, glabrous; style 6-10 mm long; stigma enclosed by the anthers, capitate with a reflexed frill at the base. Fruit of 2 follicular mericarps eventually spreading at 180°; follicles 20-30 cm long and 3-4 cm broad near the base, tapering gradually to 1 cm broad at the blunt apex, brown, smooth. Seeds oblong, acute, 10-12 mm long, finely tomentose, light brown; awn plumose, 9-12 cm long, with a naked stalk 3-4 cm long; cotyledons broadly elliptic; endosperm scanty; radicle 3 mm long.