Herbs perennial, 10--35 cm tall, drying black or not. Roots clustered, linear, to 8 cm. Stems single, sulcate, with lines of whitish hairs, with ± persistent remnant scales at base. Leaves mostly basal; petiole to 7 cm, whitish pubescent; leaf blade narrowly oblong to oblong-lanceolate, to more than 10 X 3 cm, 2- or 3-pinnatisect; segments linear, incised-dentate, teeth callose. Inflorescences racemose, more than 10 cm; bracts leaflike, densely whitish villous. Calyx to 1.3 cm, densely whitish villous, with dense reticulate venation; lobes 5, unequal, 2 pairs of lateral lobes connivent, entire, apex 2-cleft. Corolla rose, ca. 2.7 cm; tube ca. 1.4 cm, glabrous; galea ± falcate apically, ca. as long as tube; beak short, apex obliquely-truncate, marginally 2 subulate-toothed and with several small teeth; lower lip slightly shorter than galea. Filaments sparsely pubescent. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug. 2n = 16.

Steppes, thinly wooded slopes. N Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, NE Nei Mongol [Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia)].