Bushy shrub to c. 1 m high, often grey and with stellate tomentum, strongly aromatic. Lvs sessile, linear to narrow-oblong, sometimes revolute, mostly 2-3 cm long, pinnate with obtuse leaflets to pinnatifid or crenulate, with scattered simple hairs in the stellate tomentum. Peduncle to 30 cm long, much > spike; spike 3-4.5 cm long, broad-cylindric, dense. Fertile bracts 7-11 mm long, broad-ovate, apiculate, purplish; sterile apical bracts 7-10 mm long, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, to nearly elliptic, mauve-blue. Calyx 5-7 mm long, tubular, ± tomentose outside; dorsal appendage broadly reniform to suborbicular, ± mucronate. Corolla 8-10 mm long; tube > calyx by c. 2 mm; limb mauve, somewhat irregular; lobes 1.5-2.5 mm long. Nutlets c. 1.5 mm long, oblong, not mucilaginous when wet.