Shrubs scandent, to 10 m. Branchlets pale gray, pendent, lenticellate. Petiole 1-2 mm; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, 4.5-6 × 1.5-2.2 cm, adaxially lustrous green, abaxially paler, leathery; lateral veins numerous, subparallel. Cymes axillary, to 10-flowered, sessile or short pedunculate, shorter than leaves. Sepals ovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm, ciliate. Corolla purple, ca. 8 mm in diam., glabrous outside, pilose inside; tube short; lobes oblong, not thickened at center. Corona lobes pilose. Anthers ovate, dorsally barbed; retinaculum adherent to stigma head. Ovaries glabrous. Follicles cylindric, ca. 12 cm × 5 mm, free at tip. Seeds oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.3 cm; coma 3-4 cm.

Thickets, mixed woods along valleys; 0-2100 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim, Vietnam]