Habit : A suffruticose diffuse plant with woody rootstock with stems numerous with many nodes and white hairs.
Leaves : Sessile, muticose, acute, entire, lanceolate above, midrib beneath distinct, with a slender nerves parallel to it, near the margins, the margins scabrid, otherwise more or less glabrous.
Inflorescence : Axillary spikes, ovoid, many, generally near the base of the stems, sometimes all conglomerated into a subradical globe.
Flowers :
Bracteate, bracts ovate, spinous-cuspidate-glabrous, often minutely pubescent at the apex and margin, bracteoles linear-lanceolate, softly membranous.
Calyx membranous, non-spinescent, 5-partite, unequal, linear-lanceolate, acute, white-pubescent. Corolla white, spotted with brown or purple, densely white-haired, tube short.
Filaments white spotted with brown or yellow.
Styles pubescent.
Fruit : Caspsules ovoid-lanceolate, compressed, 2-seeded, yellowish-brown, shining, smooth seeds, brownish-black, rounded at the tip, with long mucilaginous hygroscopic hairs.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : October-December
Significance :
The plant is considered as a bitter tonic.
Ash of this plant is mixed with oil and applied on blotches, swellings etc.
It is also applied on ringworm and itch with sulphur.
Leaves are used as substitute for tea by some people.