Perennial 30-150 cm, with several branched leafy stems. Stems sturdy, quadrangular, densely pubescent to sparsely so with eglandular hairs. Leaves ovate, 5-10 x 3-7 cm, crenate-serrate, rounded at base or truncate, ± glabrescent above, canescent below; petiole up to 4 cm. Verticillasters up to 20-flowered, distant below, crowded above. Bracts linear-subulate, half length of calyx. Pedicels c. 2 mm. Calyx 6-8 mm in flower, pilose to hirsute, with oil globules and with or without glandular hairs; teeth triangular or triangular lanceolate, acute to acuminate, throat open in fruit. Corolla greenish white with purplish markings, 15-17 mm long, soon deciduous. Staminal filaments vinous. Nutlets ovoid, c. 1.8 mm long, very glossy black, not triquetrous, apically rounded with a small round basal attachment scar.

Fl. Per.: April-September.

Type: [India]. (LINN 726/28 - microfiche!).

Distribution: China, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Himalayas to Pakistan.

A widespread species which, in the Himalayan part of its wide range, reaches its western limit in Pakistan. The remarkably shiny black nutlets are one of the distinctive features of the species.