Annual or perennial, stout, succulent, erect, glabrous herb; stem 30-50 cm; simple or branched; leaves ovate-obovate, flaccid, ciliate towards the base, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs above; petiole 2-7 cm, naked or with stipitate glands, pedicels equal to or shorter than petioles, slender, spreading; flowers 4-6 cm across; corolla pink, rose, violet or purple, lateral wings spreading, flat, variable in shape, upper lip small, spur up to 5 cm, rather stout, incurved; wings with large, rounded lobes, standard ovate, mucronate; stamens-5, anthers coherent, filaments short; ovary 5-celled, many ovuled, stigma sessile; capsule turgid, dehiscing loculicidally, valves-5, elastically springing away from placentiferous axis; seeds many, smooth, glabrous, exalbuminous, subcompressed.