Erect suffrutex 30–120 cm tall, with 3–4 or many stems from a slender rhizome; stems often reddish, 3–4-angled, glabrous or rarely very sparsely pubescent.Leaves in whorls of 3–5, markedly discolorous; 2.2–12 × 0.3–3.8 cm, narrowly elliptic or oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, tapering to a fine acute apex, cuneate at the base, green and glabrous above, drying whitish-tomentose beneath due to a very dense covering of minute papilla-like hairs, pale green in life; petiole 1–2.5 mm long; stipules joined to form a sheath 1.5–3 mm long with 3 filiform appendages 5–8 mm long.Inflorescences 2–5-flowered, glabrous; peduncle 3–4 mm long; pedicels 1.5–6 mm long.Calyx tube 1.2–1.5 mm long; limb with triangular to lanceolate teeth 1–3.5 mm long.Corolla distinctly 5–6-apiculate at the apex in bud, the appendages diverging; yellowish or bright yellow; tube 3–4(5) mm long, with ring of deflexed hairs inside; lobes 4–5.5 × 2 mm, narrowly triangular or oblong-triangular, drawn out at the apex into a subulate appendage, 1–1.5 mm long.Style rather stout, about 7 mm long; pollen presenter coroniform, 1–1.5 mm long, 3–4-lobed.Ovary 3–4-locular.Fruit black, crowned with the persistent calyx limb, often oblique, 6–10(13) mm long, usually with 2–3 pyrenes.