Perennial herb, with large, woody caudex; herbage retrorsely hispidulous; stems several, simple or branched; leaves opposite or nearly so, or in whorls of 3, narrowly linear, entire, often revolute, midrib prominent on lower surface; inflorescence a loose, leafy raceme, pedicels often in whorls of three, 5-27 mm long in flower, 15-30 in fruit; flowers showy, brownish-yellow or orange-yellow, drying blackish; calyx puberulent, tube 3.5-5 mm, lobes triangular, 0.5-1.5 mm; corolla bilaterally symmetrical, 20-30 mm across, the tube short, scarcely surpassing the calyx, the throat large, ventricose, the lobes ciliate; anther filaments lanose for about half their length. Flowers mid-August to early October.