Herbs perennial, erect. Basal leaves largest, margin coarsely serrate to incised-pinnatipartite. Verticillasters many flowered, widely spaced or in long robust spikes, densely lanate-villous or glabrous. Flowers sessile. Calyx tubular-campanulate to broadly funnelform, 5-toothed, sometimes limb dilated, 5-apiculate; teeth short, broadly truncate, rounded, ovate or triangular, apex spiny; sinuses between teeth with ovate-triangular appendages. Corolla 2-lipped; tube mostly included, narrow; upper lip narrow, galeate or falcate, concave, narrowed at base, bearded or villous inside and on margin; lower lip spreading, 3-lobed, middle lobe largest. Stamens 4, anterior 2 longer; some filaments with comblike-fimbriate appendages at base; anther cells 2, divaricate. Style unequally 2-cleft, anterior lobe larger. Nutlets obovoid, triquetrous, subtruncate, densely bearded at apex.

About 60 species (or only five in the strict sense): Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; SW Asia; five species in China.

Several botanists have recently rearranged the generic placings of Eremostachys and Phlomis (cf. Adylov, Kamelin, & Makhmedov, Novosti Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 23: 110-114, 1986; Vvedensky, Conspect. Fl. As. Med. 9: 74-113, 1987). By adopting their concepts species 1 and 2 would be placed in Phlomoides along with all but one species of Phlomis recorded from China, species 3 and 4 in Paraeremostachys and only E. moluccelloides would remain in Eremostachys.