Herbs perennial, 10--40 cm tall, drying ± black. Roots numerous, fascicled. Stems often single, striate, often with persistent scales and old petioles at base, whitish woolly. Leaves mostly basal, clustered; petiole to 5 cm, whitish woolly; leaf blade lanceolate-oblong, to 6 X 1.5 cm, pubescent on both surfaces, 2-pinnatisect; segments dentate, teeth callose. Stem leaves similar to basal ones but smaller. Inflorescences to 25 cm; axis whitish woolly; bracts linear, shorter than flowers, dentate. Calyx ca. 1 cm, whitish pubescent along midvein and lobes; tube membranous; lobes 5, unequal, 2 pairs of lateral lobes connivent. Corolla yellow, to 2.3 cm; tube ca. 1.3 cm, glabrous externally; galea falcate apically, slightly shorter than tube; beak very short, obliquely truncate apically, marginally 2 subulate-toothed; lower lip much shorter than galea, distinctly stipitate basally. 2 filaments pubescent, 2 glabrous. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug. 2n = 16.

Steppes, rocky gravelled slopes; 1000--2500 m. NE Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].