Perennial, generally leafless, erect, branched, bushy shrub, up to 2–3 m tall, with green stems. Leaves are ovate-oblong and acute, 6–7 mm long and 2–3 mm wide, early deciduous and present on juvenile branches. Flowers are fragrant, borne on rather thick peduncles, and arranged in short cymes that are usually few-flowered. Calyx lobes are about 2.5 mm long. Corolla lobes are reddish purple, narrow-ovate, densely woolly hairy toward the margins and about 6 mm long. Fruits are linear-ovoid follicles, up to 10 cm long and horizontally divergent.