A branched perennial up to 30 cm tall with a woody stem and branches dense appressed hairy, with hairs up to 1 mm long; some hairs arising from a tuberculate base. Leaves petiolate, ± scabrid; petiole up to 1 mm long. Lamina 12-25 x 6-18 mm, ovate, obtuse, crenulate-wavy hairy on the surface; hairs up to 0.8 mm long, especially prominent on the nerves on under surface; nerves impressed above. Inflorescence terminal or axillary; few-flowered; up to 4.5 cm long in fruit. Calyx 3 mm long, 5-partite, dense hairy to the outside; lobes ovate lanceolate. Corolla tube 5-6 mm long, retrorsely hairy to the outside and hairy just above the anthers on the inside. Lobes 1-1.5 mm long, linear, inflexed when young. Anthers 2 mm long, subsessile, broader at the base; attached c. 2 mm from corolla base. Stigma 1.8 mm long, conical, pilose, bristly towards apex. Style 0.8 mm long, sparsely hairy. Nutlets 2 mm long, ovoid, glabrous.

Fl. Per.: Febru¬ary-March.

Type: Afghanistan: N. Herat, 490 m, Gills 3106 (W).

Distribution: Iran, Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

As pointed out by Kazmi (l.c.), the above specimens had previously been wrongly identified as Heliotropium taftanicum. The ssp. gillianum differs from the type subspecies in having longer corolla hairs with longer lobes.