Annual or biennial succulent viscid herb, 11·5-150 cm. high (incl. the inflorescence). Stem erect, usually simple, rarely furcate or branched above the base, 3-15 mm. thick below, 4-gonous to narrowly winged or subterete and with 4 longitudinal raised lines, green or whitish on drying, glabrous or sparsely hairy below, more densely and with longer hairs above, the hairs slender, soft, spreading, up to 3 mm. long, minutely capitate-glandular; internodes 1-8·5 cm. long. Leaves 3-23(30) x 0·7-9 cm., obovate, obovate-oblong to narrowly oblong- or linear-lanceolate, obtuse to acute, entire or sinuate to crenate or sometimes irregularly shallow-lobed, sessile, connate (sheath up to 0·5 cm.) or the uppermost free, decurrent, glabrous to shortly glandular-hairy, succulent but not thickly fleshy, flat, papery to membranous and yellowish-green on drying. Flowers erect in ± long cymes grouped in panicle- or thyrse-like inflorescences up to 50 cm. long or sometimes reduced to the terminal group and then corymbose; internodes of inflorescences ± long, the lower ones up to 12·5 cm. long; branches of inflorescences up to 20 cm. long, erect, in the axils of leaf-like bracts, glandular-hairy; pedicels 1·5-3 mm. long, glandular-hairy. Calyx (4)5-7(9) mm. long, rounded at the base, green, glandular-hairy; tube less than 5 to slightly more than 1/3 of the total calyx length; sepals up to 3·5 mm. broad at base, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, attenuate-cuspidate, pale green, glandular-hairy on both sides. Corolla-tube (8)9-14 mm. long, 4-gonous in the part included into the calyx, contracted above the ovary in a slender subcylindrical tubular portion, then suddenly dilatate below the limb, membranaceous, pale yellow or pale pink, pilose and matt outside, somewhat shining and glabrous inside, somewhat innate and slightly rigid in fruit, splitting ready above the follicles and falling off; corolla-lobes 3-6 x 1·7-3·5(4) mm., obovate or broadly ovate, abruptly apiculate (apicule ± 0·75 mm.), rarely attenuate, pale yellow or greenish yellow to deep yellow, salmon, scarlet or deep orange. Stamens included, insertedd above the middle of corolla-tube; filaments of lower stamens 0·5 mm., those of the upper ones 1·5 mm. long; anthers 0·5-0·75 mm. long, ovate, pale yellow, the upper ones c. 1·75-2 mm. below the mouth of corolla-tube. Follicles 5-8 mm. long, fusiform, attenuate above, pale; styles 0·5-0·75 mm. long. Scales 2·5-4·5 mm. long, linear. Seeds 0·5-0·75 mm. long, clavate, with longitudinal raised lines.