Small mat-forming shrub to c. 30 cm high. Shoots with long, glandular hairs and short, eglandular, crisped hairs. Petiole c. 1 mm long. Lamina 5–12 × 1.5–4 mm, lanceolate to narrowly ovate-oblong, sparsely hairy above, with white felty indumentum below but partly obscured by revolute margin; base narrowly cuneate; apex mucronate. Racemes loose, to c. 10 cm long; rachis and pedicels with glandular hairs. Bracts leaflike, mostly 3–6 mm long, linear to narrow-lanceolate, sparsely hairy above, with white felty indumentum below. Fls pendent. Calyx c. 3 mm long; lobes triangular-ovate, densely covered in glandular hairs, often purplish. Corolla c. 1 cm long, purplish or magenta, with sparse glandular hairs outside. Anthers c. 5 mm long, linear, > filaments. Style ± or > stamens.
[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]
Flowering: Nov.–Apr.