Color, purple. Leaves, bract-like above, the lower with long petioles, heart-shape. Flowers, nodding, in racemes or single in the axils of the upper bracts, pedicelled. July and August.

A rather stiff plant, escaped from cultivation in country gardens, now found along roadsides and in thickets. At the base of the capsule, small pores are found through which the seeds are set free.