Suffruticose much branched herb, forming small tufts. Stems ± leafy, erect-ascending, c. 10-25 cm tall, above and below with short or long usually retrorse eglandular hairs, sometime with capitate glandular hairs on inflorescence axis. Leaves ovate-oblong to linear-elliptic, c. 12-25 x 4-10 (-14) mm, crenate to serrate, rugulose, on both surfaces with short eglandular hairs, sometimes with capitate glandular hairs, usually indistinctly (rarely clearly) petiolate with longer hairs on petiole. Inflorescence of simple racemes, sometimes branched; verticillasters distant, 2-6-flowered. Bracts and bracteoles present. Pedicels c. 2 mm long elongating to c. 3.5 mm in fruit, spreading-ascending. Calyx ovate to tubular campanulate, c. 5 mm in flower and c. 7 mm in fruit, with a rather dense indumentum of sessile oil globules, capitate glandular and eglandular hairs; upper lip of 3 closely connivent small c. 0.3 mm teeth, clearly concave in fruit; lower lip with 2 acuminate-subulate c. 3 mm teeth, longer than upper lip. Corolla violet-blue, pale lavender or white with purple or lilac markings on lip, c. 6-8 mm long; upper lip straight or reflexed, much shorter than lower; tube somewhat annulate. Lower thecae fertile. Nutlets smooth, black, c. 2 x 1 mm, scarcely trigonous, mucilaginous on wetting.

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Type: Egypt (BM - Hort. Cliff. 1).

Distribution: Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, NW and N. Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabian peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India.

A clearly defined species with a relatively small range of variation; readily separated from its allies (species 4-7) on calyx indumentums.