Description:
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Perennial herb 0.3-1 m tall, glabrous throughout; stems numerous, erect, unbranched, 4-gonous or slightly 4-winged, densely leafy, pale green to reddish; leaves opposite, sessile, upright, 4-12.5 x 1-4.5 cm, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, margins entire, somewhat discolorous, shining light green above and yellowish-green below, turning reddish with age, longitudinally 3-5 nerved; flowers 5-merous, in terminal pyramidal lax to somewhat dense panicles up to 20 cm long; pedicles 2-10 mm long; bracts 14-18 x 12-18 mm, broadly ovate, emarginate, purple, scarious; receptacle 8-9 x 4-5 mm, cylindric, dark red or purple; sepals 6-7 x 2-3 mm, ovate-oblong, truncate, emarginate or bilobed at apex, thin, purplish; intersepalar segments absent; petals c. 2 x 1.6 cm, obovate, bright pink to purplish-violet; longer stamens – anthers 9-10 mm, pseudoconnective 9-11 mm long; shorter stamens – anthers c. 6 mm long, pseudoconnective c. 1 mm long; fructiferous receptacle 8-9 x 5.5-7 mm, urceolate, contracted above the capsule, usually very dark purple; capsule subspherical; seeds minutely tuberculate. |