Description: "Perennial subligneous herb to 1.5 m high, the branchlets shaggy-hirsute to hispid, usually eglandular; leaves petiolate, the petioles slender, 0.5-2 (-6) cm long, the blades ovate-deltoid, 2.5-4 (-6) x 1.5-3 (-5) cm, truncate to cordate and then abruptly attenuate at base, acute to obtuse at apex, shallowly crenate to serrate at margin, glabrous to scaberulous above, more densely pubescent and often glandular-pubescent beneath especially on nerves; verticils 2-10 (-14)-flowered, arranged in terminal racemes, the bracts ovate-lanceolate, to 1 cm long, often long-ciliate on margin, deciduous; pedicels slender, to 8 mm long; calyx dull purple and green, tubular, erect or deflexed from end of pedicel, 7-8 mm long at anthesis, to 10 mm long in fruit, striate, pubescent, the upper lip entire, obtuse, the lower lip 2-toothed, the teeth triangular to ovate, acute; corolla red, 20-25 (-30) mm long, pubescent, without, the tube straight, exserted, the upper lip short, erect, the lower lip 3-lobed, longer than upper lip, stamens inserted in corolla throat, the filaments pink, to 4 mm long, the connectives many times longer; nutlets narrowly ovoid, about 3 mm long, brown, smooth.

Habitat/ecology: Cultivated and naturalized as a minor weed of waste places in Fiji at elevations from near sea level to about 850 m. In Hawai‘i, "naturalized in low elevation, dry, disturbed habitats, 50-1,000 m". In Niue, "a very common adventive that now grows over most of Niue in waste places and plantations". In Tonga, "rather widespread as a weed in waste areas". In New Caledonia, "peu cultivé aujourd'hui mais répandu et parfois commun à l'état spontané".