General:
Annual herb; stems erect, 10-40 cm tall, slender, simple or branched above, short-hairy, usually purple-tinged.

Leaves:
Alternate, unstalked, linear to lanceolate, 1.5-3.5 cm long, green, short-spreading-hairy and often also glandular-hairy, entire below, 3-cleft above, the upper leaves passing into the wider, 3-lobed bracts of the inflorescence.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a dense, ultimately elongate, prominently bracted, densely hairy and glandular-hairy, terminal spike 3-15 cm long, the bracts uniformly green or the upper purple-tinged, glandular-soft-hairy, 10-20 mm long, differing gradually from the leaves, more or less egg-shaped, divided two-thirds of the way down into 3 (5) triangular-lanceolate lobes; corollas rose-purple, hairy, 12-20 mm long, exserted from the bracts, tubular, 2-lipped, the upper lip beaked and hooked, scarcely exceeding the lower lip, the lower lip swollen, pouched, toothless; calyces tubular, 6-10 mm long, green, glandular-hairy, unequally 4-lobed; stamens 4.

Fruits:
Capsules, ellipsoid, 5-7 mm long; seeds 8 to 15, about 3 mm long, with tight-fitting, netted, ridged coats.

Notes:
This species was formerly known from several locations in the Victoria area but has not been collected there since 1954.

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.