Plants perennial. Stems erect, to 70 cm, pilose, puberulent. Petiole 0-4 cm; leaf blade ovate to lanceolate-ovate, 4-9 × 1.5-5 cm, adaxially bullate, scabrous, abaxially pubescent, base cordate, margin irregularly crenate-serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences densely puberulent; verticillasters 4-6-flowered, in elongated terminal racemes or panicles; bracts broadly ovate, purple-red, 4-6 mm, base rounded, margin entire, apex caudate-acuminate to acuminate. Pedicel ca. 1.5 mm. Calyx ovoid-campanulate, 5-6 mm, sparsely yellow-brown glandular, finely pilose on veins, 2-lipped to ca. 1/3 its length; upper lip semicircular, ca. 1.5 × 4 mm, apex 3-denticulate; middle tooth smaller, slightly reflexed; lower lip longer than upper, ca. 3 × 4 mm, deeply 2-toothed, teeth narrow triangular. Corolla blue-purple to purple, 9-10 mm, finely pilose, yellow-brown glandular; tube ca. 8 mm, ca. 2 mm wide at base, ca. 3 mm wide at throat, straight; upper lip elliptic, ca. 5 × 3.5 mm; lower lip subcircular, ca. 5 × 6.5 mm, margin undulate; lateral lobes elliptic, ca. 2 mm wide. Filaments ca. 2 mm; connectives ca. 6.5 mm, upper arms ca. 4.5 mm, lower arms ca. 2 mm. Nutlets black, obovoid, ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.

A very close relative of the Eurasian Salvia nemerosa Linnaeus; the purple-red bracts are distinctive.

Waste places, sandy grasslands, streamsides in forests; 300-1800 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia]