Perennials, 20-30 cm tall, black when dry, glabrous or soon glabrescent. Stems numerous, erect, quadrangular, slender. Leaves opposite, subsessile; lower leaves scalelike and small, obovate-oblong, apex obtuse; middle and upper leaves with leaf blade lanceolate to narrowly so, 6-9 cm, submembranous, abaxially glaucous and light green, base cuneate, margin sparsely to obscurely serrate, apex acute to narrowly acuminate, lateral veins several. Racemes terminal, scorpioid, ca. 6-flowered; bracts narrowly lanceolate. Flowers small. Pedicel shorter than flower, slender. Calyx funnelform, 6-9 mm, 5-lobed; lobes lanceolate, as long as tube in length, apex acute, midrib conspicuous, lateral veins inconspicuous. Corolla hardly exserted from calyx. Capsule ovoid, apex acuminate. Fl. and fr. Mar.

* W Hubei, E Sichuan.