Stems erect to ascending, branched from base or above middle, 10-44 cm tall, sparsely strigose and spreading bristly. Basal and lower stem leaves long petiolate, lanceolate-oblong to narrowly spatulate-oblanceolate or oblong, (1-)3-5.5 × 5-15 cm, base attenuate, apex ± acute; upper stem leaves ± sessile, narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong, smaller, 1-3 cm, strigose, sparsely bristly. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, initially crowded, subglobose, to 1.5 cm in fruit, sometimes with a long pedicellate flower opposite a leaf at branching on middle of stem; bracts lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 1-4 cm. Pedicel to 1 mm, to 5 mm in ebracteate flower below inflorescences. Calyx 2-2.5 mm, short strigose and sparsely hirsute, parted nearly to base; lobes linear-triangular. Corolla blue, glabrous; tube 1.5-2(-3) mm; appendages low trapeziform or lunate, ca. 0.3 mm; limb 3.8-9 mm wide; lobes broadly ovate. Nutlets ovoid, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm, with fine tubercles and short hairs; aperture oblong, ca. 1 mm; attachment scar near middle adaxially. Fl. Jun-Aug.

* Alpine meadows; 2200-4600 m. Gansu, E Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang