Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennial herbs.

Stems: Central stem erect, lateral branches spreading, densely short–hispidulous (hairs spreading or occasionally somewhat retrorsely appressed).

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite. Blades ovate to ovate–elliptic, ca. 3–5 cm long, 1.5–2.4 cm wide. Apex obtuse. Base truncate to subcordate. Surfaces moderately to densely hispidulous, more densely so along veins on leaves lower surface; apparently somewhat thick. Margins coarsely serrate. Petioles 0.9–2.5 cm long, densely hispidulous. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers 4–6 per verticillaster, in unbranched, terminal, racemose inflorescences up to ca. 8 cm long, usually forming on most lateral branches, pedicels 3–6 mm long, bracts suborbicular, 6–14 mm long, lowermost pair larger, ca. 16–21 mm long, all bracts subsessile and pubescence same as that of leaves. Calyx campanulate, 4–5 mm long, enlarging in fruit, densely hispidulous, lobes oblong, 2.7–3.3 mm long, both surfaces hispidulous, inner face less densely so, apex rounded to obtuse, splitting longitudinally, usually persistent or sometimes only ventral 1/2 persistent. Corolla bilabiate, white, tube ca. 8–9.5 mm long, hispidulous, tube narrowly funnelform, upper lip entire or 2-lobed, flat or concave, much smaller than lower one, lower lip ca. 4–6 mm long, 3-lobed, lateral lobes ovate, slightly asymmetrical, lower lobe broadly ovate to suborbicular, slightly folded to form a groove, margins somewhat undulate, apex emarginate or entire; nectary disk often present at base of ovary, annular or developed on anterior side only. Stamens 4, both pairs of similar length or upper pair slightly longer, ascending the upper corolla lip, included, aligned with the sinuses; filaments inserted near throat, usually pubescent; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits; anther sacs divaricate. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate, placentation basal-axile; ovules 1 per ovary lobe; style 1, included, arising between lobes, shortly 2-lobed, the lobes clavate; stigmatic only at apex, 1 lobe often rudimentary; stigmas 2.

Fruit: Nutlets ca. 3 mm long; very sparsely glandular–dotted; 1-seeded; dark green to black; drupaceous; exocarp fleshy; obovoid; margins slightly winged; obliquely attached at the connate base; spreading and exserted from calyx at maturity. Seeds with endosperm absent or scanty and oily.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Formerly occurring in strand and coastal; sandy sites.

Elevation Range: