Shrub, aromatic, much branched, 30-160 cm. Stems erect with rather slender quadrangular branches, leafy, with an indumentum of small stellate dendroid hairs. Leaves broad-ovate, variable in size, 1.5-7 (-9) x 1-3 (-4.5) cm, rugose, usually green or dark above with few branched hairs and white below with a very dense indumentum of small stellate-dendroid hairs, crenate or crenulate; petiole up to 2.5 cms, usually much less. Cymes on slender lateral branches, lax, forming often leafy racemes. Pedicels slender up to 6 mm, erect or spreading. Calyx in flower 2-3.5 mm, indistinctly bilabiate, obliquely campanulate, with simple and/or branched hairs of varying length and density and usually numerous oil globules; teeth short, subequal, broad triangular; calyx in fruit up to 6 mm, curved, spreading. Corolla white tinged or spotted pink or violet, c. 6 mm long; tube short included in calyx, somewhat gibbous at base; lips diverging, lower longer than upper. Nutlets pale brown to dark brown, oblong, c. 1.5 x 1 mm, mucilaginous on wetting.

Fl. Per.: March-October.

Type: Deyra Dhoon [Dehra Dun], Choor, Royle.

Distribution: SE Arabia (Oman), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Himalayas to Nepal, SW China.

Although there is appreciable variation in leaf size and in the type and quantity of indumentum, especially in the inflorescence region, this is not a particularly polymorphic species. According to R. R. Stewart (l.c.), it is one of the commonest shrubs in the west Himalayas and a good honey source; it is usually a plant of dry rocky slopes, where it can be a dominant species in the community.