Slender erect annual 5–30 cm high, covered by soft glandular and stiff eglandular hairs. Leaves opposite, ovate to broad-ovate, 3–15 mm long, 2–7 mm wide, margins toothed, upper leaves with 2 or rarely 3 pairs of teeth. Racemes dense, with few-many subsessile flowers. Calyx 6–7 mm long, elongating to 8–10 mm long in fruit, ribbed; corolla 8–10 mm long, persistent in fruit, red-purple with the inner face of the lobes pink (very rarely white throughout), with a slender tube and very short narrow upper and lower lips; anthers yellow. Capsule narrow-ovoid to ellipsoid, 6–7 mm long, glabrous Flowers Sep.–Dec.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, VAlp. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW, ACT, Tas., New Zealand. Native to Mediterranean region. Widespread weed of pasture and sometimes native bushland, usually in seasonally moist sites.
