Herbs perennial, 25-100 cm tall. Roots red-brown, straight, stout. Stems erect, hollow, ribbed, branched above, appressed pilose; branches spreading. Basal and lower stem leaves gray-green, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 7-15 × 2-4 cm, densely appressed pubescent, base attenuate, apex obtuse to acuminate; middle and upper stem leaves sessile, narrowly lanceolate, gray pubescent. Inflorescences paniculate, terminal or axillary, ca. 10 cm; bracts narrowly lanceolate to linear. Pedicel slender, 3-10 mm, to 2-4 cm in fruit, recurved, densely appressed pilose. Flowers widely spaced. Calyx 2-3 mm, pubescent outside; lobes reflexed, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, scarcely enlarged in fruit. Corolla blue-purple, ca. 3 mm, parted to lower 1/3; throat appendages trapeziform, ca. 0.5 mm; limb 3-5 mm wide; lobes ovate-orbicular, apex retuse. Stamens inserted above middle of corolla tube; anthers ovoid, ca. 0.6 mm. Nutlets ovoid, 4.5-6 × ca. 5 mm, with dense glochids, adaxially flat; attachment scar orbicular, above middle.

Dry slopes, dunes, rocky marshes, roadsides, meadows; 500-2500 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia]