Herbs annual or biennial. Stems 1 to few, erect, 20-65 cm, unbranched, densely spreading white lanate. Stem leaves, 1-4-pinnate; petiole 1.5-5.5 cm, petiolules 2-7 mm; leaflets ovate to lanceolate, 2-6.5 × 0.7-2.3 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially green-purple, villous on veins, margin crenate or serrate; terminal leaflet linear to ovate. Inflorescences glandular pilose; verticillasters 2-6-flowered, in terminal and axillary racemes 6-15 cm or panicles to 25 cm; bracts lanceolate, 1-3 mm, apex acuminate, ciliate. Pedicel ca. 3 mm. Calyx dark purple, tubular, 5-7 mm, glandular white pilose along veins, white hirsute on throat; upper lip triangular, ca. 1 × 4.5 mm; lower lip longer than adaxial, ca. 2 × 3 mm, teeth narrowly triangular; fruiting calyx 6-8 mm. Corolla purple-red, 0.9-3 cm, long tubular, pilose; tube to 2.5 cm, straight, ca. 2 mm wide at base, slightly dilated at throat; upper lip oblong, ca. 5 × 3 mm; lower lip ca. 5 × 7 mm, middle lobe broadly obcordate, lateral lobes semicircular. Filaments ca. 2 mm; connectives ca. 3.5 mm, upper arms slightly longer than abaxial. Nutlets brown, ellipsoid, ca. 2 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

Close to Salvia plectranthoides; separated from it in the original diagnosis by the hirsute annulus of the calyx tube and the spreading white lanate stems.

* Riverbanks, rocky slopes, open areas; 1700-1800 m. Hubei, Sichuan