灰毛软紫草 hui mao ruan zi cao

Herbs perennial, densely gray-white hirsute. Stems usually numerous, much branched, 10-18 cm tall. Leaves sessile, linear-oblong to linear-lanceolate, 0.8-2.5 cm × 2-4 mm. Cymes 1-3 cm; bracts linear. Flowers crowded, heterostylous. Calyx lobes subulate, ca. 1.1 cm, densely hirsute on both sides. Corolla pale blue-purple or pink, sometimes white, 1.5-2.2 cm, sparsely pubescent; tube straight or slightly curved; limb 5-13 mm wide; lobes broadly ovate, subequal, margin irregularly dentate. Anthers ca. 2 mm. Style filiform, apex 2-lobed. Nutlets triangular-ovate, ca. 2 mm, densely tuberculate, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

Gobi Desert, rocky slopes, gravelly places. W Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai (Qaidam Basin) [Mongolia].