Shrub 1.5-3 m tall;  mature stems and older branches terete, fissured, indumentum of closely appressed, gray, linear, flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs with a reddish-brown vesiculate base;  twigs terete, with loosely appressed, gray, linear flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs with reddish-brown vesiculate bases, and sometimes additionally with short, reddish-orange, spreading, multicellular-multiseriate, glandular hairs or pustules.  Leaves arising from the same terminal bud as the flowers, evergreen, coriaceous, flat, elliptic to slightly oblanceolate, 2.6-6.5 x 0.7-2.1 cm, apex acute with a broad, blunt mucro, base cuneate, margin with long, linear, flattened cilia, sometimes with brown, vesiculate bases;  adaxial surface with long, slightly flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs and sometimes with scattered, multicellular hairs with vesiculate bases, adaxial surface rugulose, with long, orange, flattened, linear, multicellular-multiseriate hairs, sometimes with very short multicellular-multiseriate, glandular hairs;  petiole channeled, 3-10 mm long, 0.5-1 mm diam., densely covered with long, flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs and multicellular-multiseriate, glandular hairs.  Inflorescence terminal, an umbelliform raceme, 1-4-flowered;  perulae ovate, acute to acuminate, base rounded, margin with long, flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs and capitate cilia, adaxial surface as on the underside of the leaf;  pedicels ascending, 7-13 mm long and 0.7-0.8 mm diam., densely covered with appressed to slightly spreading, orange, linear, lacerate, multicellular hairs with gland-like, reddish-brown, vesicular bases, the hairs usually small but with larger hairs on the same type intermingled.  Flowers 5-merous;  calyx 7-15 x 4-13 mm, campanulate; tube cup-shaped, 1-4 x 4-6 mm, tan to greenish, with fringed-vesicular hairs or multicellular-multiseriate, glandular hairs and flattened, multicellular-multiseriate hairs;  lobes lanceolate to ovate, 4.3-10 x 2.1-4 mm, apex acuminate to obtuse or rounded, sometimes erose, margin with elongate cilia, occasionally glandular or with long and short cilia interspersed, adaxial surface with multicellular-multiseriate, glandular hairs or with fringed-vesicular hairs;  corolla funnelform to funnel-campanulate, 4-5 x 5.5 cm, reddish-violet to red, the tube 15-16 mm long, the lobes 22-33 x 13-20 mm, broadly rounded, slightly spreading;  stamens 8-10, 23-30 mm long;  filaments ca. 0.3 mm diam., with short, translucent scales on the lower portion;  anthers 1.7-2 x 0.7-1 mm, with a small nipple at the base;  ovary very densely covered with long, fringed-vesicular hairs;  style sinuate, glabrous, 38-45 mm long and 0.5 mm diam.;  stigma truncate.  Capsule and seeds not seen on neotropical material.

    Distribution.  Native and endemic to China;  however, it is now commonly cultivated as an ornamental throughout the world.