An erect shrub or undershrub, up to 2 m tall, with quadrangular, pubescent branches. Leaves broadly ovate to subrounded, 8-15 cm long, 7-14 cm broad, hairy, glandular at the base of lamina, coarsely and irregularly dentate, acute; petiole 4-9 cm long. Cymes terminal, corymbose, compact, subsessile. Flowers white to pink, fragrant, c. 2 cm across, shortly pedicelled; bracts foliaceous, oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent, persistent. Calyx campanulate, pubescent, 5-lobed; lobes lanceolate with glands on the margins. Corolla double, salverform; tube 1-1.5 cm long; lobes 5, obovate, spreading. Drupe rarely developed.

Fl. Per.: Summer.

Type: Cuming 1096 (GH).

Distribution: Tropical and subtropical Asia and America.

Sometimes cultivated in our gardens for its handsome, fragrant flowers. The plant spreads by root-suckers, and is naturalized in many parts of the world.