Herbs perennial, 30--100 cm tall, with creeping rhizomes. Stems erect, simple or branched in upper part, with dense multicellular tangled hairs. Leaves alternate or subopposite, subsessile, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate or linear, 4--10 X 0.6--2.2 cm, abaxially more densely so, epunctate, adaxially pubescent, tapering at base, apex obtuse to acute. Racemes 4--6 cm, elongating to 30 cm in fruit, densely flowered; bracts linear-subulate, ciliate. Pedicel 4--6 mm, usually slightly shorter than bracts, pubescent. Flowers often secund. Calyx lobes oblong, 3--4 mm, margin membranous, apex rounded. Corolla white; tube ca. 2 mm; lobes oblong-spatulate, 5--8 X ca. 2 mm, often dark purple glandular striate, apex obtuse to slightly emarginate. Stamens included; filaments adnate to corolla tube, free parts ca. 3 mm, glandular puberulent; anthers elliptic, dorsifixed, ca. 1 mm. Ovary glabrous; style 3--3.5 mm. Capsule subglobose, 2.5--4 mm in diam. Fl. May-Aug. 2n = 24@.

Mountain meadows, grassy mountain slopes, in shrubs; 800--2000 m. Fujian, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, E Russia].