Erect branching shrubs 6-10 dm tall; stems pubescent with both long and short appressed hairs. Leaves dark green on upper surface, lower surface pale green, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 2.5-10 (-19) cm long, sparsely strigillose, especially on the veins, apex attenuate, petioles 0.2-1 (-3.5) cm long. Flowers subtended by 2 greenish white to white, linear, spinose bracts with conspicuous veins, 8-15 mm long, pedicels 0-1 mm long; outer 2 calyx lobes enlarged, ovate, becoming chartaceous with age, the veins green and conspicuous, ca. 10 mm long at anthesis, enlarging to 15-25 mm long in fruit, spiny-margined, the inner 2 lobes linear, ca. 7 mm long, margins entire; corolla violet, pink, or white, funnelform, 5-5.7 cm long. Capsules ellipsoid, 1.4-1.7 cm long, glabrous and glossy at maturity.

Antiarrhythmic, oxytocic, alleviates spasms and lowers blood sugar (plant).

PIER

Apigenin, quercetin and quercetin-3-O-B-D-glucoside, naringenin and apigenin glucuronide (flower).

Anemia (root); snakebite antidote (seed); bronchitis, fever and blood diseases (plant).

Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.