A perennial undershrub, (20-) 30-60 (-90) cm tall, much branched with branchlets usually densely pubescent. Leaves suborbicular, ovate to broadly elliptic, 1-2.5 (-4) cm long, 0.5-3 cm broad, coarsely dentate, obtuse, puberulous, prominently veined; petiole 5-12 mm long. Spikes terminal, continuous, (3-) 5-15 (-25) cm long with somewhat appressed flowers. Flowers white, sessile, bracteate; bracts 3-5 mm long, lanceolate, pubescent with ciliate margins. Calyx tubular, exceeding the bracts, up to 6 mm long, 5-ribbed and minutely toothed on truncate apex, pubescent, usually splitting longitudinally outside in fruit. Corolla more than twice as long as the calyx tube, 10-12 mm long, slightly inflated below the limb; lobes 5, short, suborbicular, 2-2.5 mm in diameter, spreading. Stamens 4, didynamous, included, with very short, glabrous filaments and ovate anthers. Fruit dry, 3-4 mm long, with two 1-seeded, linear-oblong, glabrous, almost smooth pyrenes; seed c. as long as the fruit.

Fl.Per. Almost the year round.

Type: Nubia, Kotschy.

Distribution: Tropical Africa, Arabia and Pakistan.