Herbs perennial, efarinose. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole short, broadly winged; leaf blade oblong to oblong-obovate, 3--6 X 1--2 cm, tapering to base, with multicellular hairs, pinnately lobulate, apex obtuse; lobules irregularly dentate. Scapes to 18 cm, pubescent; racemes 1.5--2 cm, 8--10-flowered; bracts linear-oblong to oblanceolate, to 5 mm. Pedicel ca. 2 mm. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx tubular-campanulate, ca. 5 mm, glandular, parted below middle; lobes narrowly obovate, apex rounded. Corolla deep bluish violet; tube 1--1.2 cm; limb spreading, ca. 1.5 cm wide; lobes obovate, ca. 7 X 5 mm, deeply 2-lobed, with a minute apiculum in sinus. Pin flowers: stamens ca. 4 mm above base of corolla tube; style ca. as long as tube. Capsule elliptic, slightly longer than calyx.

This species was described from a cultivated plant grown from seed collected by T. T. Yü (13861) from Yunnan, Zhongdian Xian (elevation 3000 m), but the wild specimen under this number is Primula runcinata (W. W. Smith & H. R. Fletcher) ex C. M. Hu. It may be a natural hybrid of P. runcinata and P. pinnatifida Franchet.