Glabrous perennial herb with short rhizomes; stems slender, erect, to c. 90 cm tall, reddish, terete or nearly so, woody at base. Lvs sessile, amplexicaul on main stems, rounded to cordate on short branches, 0.4-2.5 × 0.2-2 cm, narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate, with pellucid glands prominent and black glands 0; apex ± rounded. Infl. terminal, a panicle of cymes, cylindric or narrow-pyramidal, open, few- to many-flowered; bracts entire or occasionally 1-2-toothed. Sepals ± equal, 2-4.5 mm long, suborbicular, not accrescent, entire, with pellucid glands and regularly spaced black glandular cilia in upper 1/2; apex obtuse or rounded. Corolla 1-1.5 cm diam., yellow with red tinge at anthesis and reddish in bud; petals broad-obovate to suborbicular, with evenly or irregularly spaced black glands, much > sepals. Stamens in 3 bundles; longest stamens nearly = petals. Styles 3, > ovary. Capsule 5-7 mm long, broadly ellipsoid-ovoid, dry. Seeds c. 1 mm long, cylindric, with a ventral line, very finely reticulate.