Botany: Erect, often branched herb up to 90 cm tall with sharply quadrangular to almost 4-winged, fleshy, hollow stem.

• Leaf: Opposite, simple, subsessile; blade lanceolate, 3.5-2.5 cm x 1.9 cm, margin entire to slightly serrate, glabrous but rough above because of small bristles.
• Inflorescence: Terminal, erect, many flowered, peduncled raceme up to 40 cm long.
• Flower: Bisexual, zygomorphic. Pedicel up to 1 cm long. Calyx 5 lobed almost to the base, lobes ovate, oblong, 3-10 mm long, overlapping at anthesis, persistent in fruit. Corolla deep red purple, glandular hairy with wide tube and 2 lips 1-3 cm long, upper lip erect, broadly rounded, emarginate, lower lip patent, rounded, 3 fid. Stamens 4, didynamous, filaments with a disc like appendage. Ovary superior, 2-celled, style filiform, stigma 2-lobed.
• Fruit:  A subglobose capsule, 7 mm x 8 mm, many seeded.
• Seed: Ellipsoid – globose, yellow-brown, tuberculate. Seedlings with epigeal germination. Hypocotyle 3-7 mm long, epicotyl very short. Cotyledons rhomboid, 4-5 mm long.

Uses: Diuretic and anti-inflammatory . Decoction of root is used for rheumatism, diarrhea, stone, syphilis and ophthalmia. Seeds cure biliousness, improve vitality and favour conception. 

Propagation: seeds and stem cuttings.