Shrub mostly 2-3 m tall with arching branches. Leaves elliptic to lanceolate, obovate, to 2.5 cm long, lower leaves with a few large teeth. Flowers in pendulous clusters of about 5-8 flowers at the tips of the branches, the tube about 7 cm long with spreading lobes, vivid magenta, stamens and style protruding.
Andes
[C. dependens Pers.]
There are white, yellow and pink forms of this species, which is sometimes offered as 'Elegans' or 'Tricolor' with red stripes.A yellow sport has been observed to appear quite regularly on bushes that have the usual reddish pink flowers. The following smaller-flowered species are occasionally encountered: C. bicolor Lam., Yellow-tube Cantua, from Bolivia, a rough shrub with yellow flowers about 2.5 cm long with red lobes; and C. pyrifolia Lam., Pear-leaved Cantua, which has yellow flowers about 2 cm long with white lobes and inner tube.
Source: (2002). Polemoniaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.