Stems ca. 40 cm, glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole 6-10 mm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to oblong, 7-9 X 2.3-4 cm, thick leathery, glabrous, adaxially drying smooth or wrinkled, abaxially not punctate, base broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate; lateral veins indistinct. Cymes pseudoterminal, 4-10-flowered; peduncle absent; bracts persistent, green, triangular to lanceolate, 5-9 X 1.5-3 mm. Pedicel 1-1.5 cm, glabrous. Calyx red or purple, 1-1.3 cm, 5-lobed from above to near middle; tube 5-6 mm in diam. at mouth; lobes ovate to broadly triangular, 3-7 X 2.2-3.2 mm, outside glabrous. Corolla scarlet to orange-scarlet, 2.5-3 cm, outside puberulent, inside glabrous, mouth slightly oblique; limb indistinctly 2-lipped, lips nearly equal, ca. 4.5 mm. Stamens exserted; filaments 2.6-3 cm; anthers coherent in pairs at apex, 2.5-3 mm; staminode ca. 1 mm. Pistil ca. 3 cm; ovary glabrous. Style ca. 1.2 cm, puberulent. Capsule (outside of China) ca. 30 cm. Seeds with 2 hairlike appendages at hilar end, to 13 mm, opposite end with 1 hairlike appendage to 7 mm. Fl. Jul.

On trees in forests of montane regions; 1200-2100 m. NW and S Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, N Myanmar].