Suffrutex, 30-150 cm tall, with 1-several shoots growing from a woody rootstock. Younger parts conspicuously covered in pale yellowish hairs. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, ovate, elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, discolorous, dark green and roughly pubescent above, velvety below, sometimes obscuring the venation. Stipules triangular at the base with a long narrow appendage c. 5 mm long. Inflorescences 3-10-flowered at the leafless nodes. Calyx densely yellowish-brown pubescent. Corolla 2-2.5 cm long, bright orange-yellow. Fruit ellipsoid, 1.8 × 1.4 cm, yellowish-brown velvety, crowned with the persistent calyx.