Herbs perennial, rhizomatous. Stems not branched, 16-35 cm tall, short strigose; sterile branches to 75 cm, with few leaves. Basal leaves 2 or 3; petiole ca. 6 cm, base expanded becoming sheathlike; leaf blade elliptic to rotund, 3-8 × 2-6 cm, subleathery, sparsely strigose, base rounded, margin ciliate, apex rounded to obtuse, mucronate; veins conspicuous, lateral veins 5-7 pairs; stem leaves 2-5 at stem apex, nearly whorled, smaller. Inflorescences terminal, ebracteate; peduncle branched, ca. 8 cm, to 11 cm in fruit, strigose. Pedicel ca. 1 mm in fruit, densely strigose. Calyx lobed nearly to middle, with 5 slightly raised veins; lobes triangular-ovate, ca. 2 mm, slightly enlarged after anthesis, finely ciliate. Corolla blue-purple; tube ca. 2 mm; throat appendages ca. 0.3 mm; limb 4-5 mm wide; lobes suborbicular, ca. 2 mm wide. Anthers elliptic, ca. 0.3 mm, reaching throat, apex obtuse. Style extending 1-1.5 mm above nutlets. Mature nutlets dark brown, inverted subulate, trigonous-tetrahedral, 1-1.2 mm, glabrous, shiny, adaxial 3 surfaces subequal in size; abaxial surfaces flat, triangular, obtusely 3-ribbed, subsessile. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

* Forests, thickets, shaded moist stream banks and ravines; 1000-1500 m. Sichuan.