Shrub 0.3-1.8(3)m tall, bushy. Stems arching, frondose; branches 4-lined or 4-angled at first, eventually terete. Leaves subsessile or with petiole up to 0.5 mm long; lamina 14-40 mm long, 4-24 mm broad, lanceolate to ovate, apex acute to rounded-apiculate, base narrowly or rarely broadly cuneate, venation laxly reticulate obtuse. Inflorescence of 1-3(-10)-flowered corym¬bose cymes, often also lateral, racemiform; flowers 1.5-3 cm in diameter. Sepals 3.5-9 mm long, oblong or elliptic to obovate-spathulate, rounded, entire, appressed in bud, ascending in fruit. Petals broadly obovate to obovate-circular, 9-18 mm long, 2-4 x longer than the stamens. Stamens 40-60 in each fascicle. Ovary 3-5 mm long; styles (0.6)0.7-0.9 x as long as the ovary, free, curving throughout or only near apex. Capsule 7-11 mm long, broadly ovoid to globose, without vittae or vesicles. Seeds 0.5-0.6(0.8) mm long, slightly carinate; testa shallowly linear-reticulate.

Fl. Per.: April-September.

Type: Cult. From seed ex Nepal, probably sent by Wallich (Bot. Mag.: t.2375).

Distribution: Kashmir to S.W. China, Burma, Thailand and Sumatra.

Only two records from the Flora area; dry open situations, 1500-1650 m.