Herbs annual, 20--30(--40) cm tall, drying black or not. Roots conical, woody. Stems 1 to several, outer ones procumbent or ascending, unbranched or often branched apically, with 4 lines of hairs. Leaves often in whorls of 4. Basal leaves ± in a rosette, smaller than stem leaves, deciduous by anthesis. Stem leaf petiole to 1 cm, narrowly winged, pubescent; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to linear-narrowly lanceolate, to 7 X 1.3 cm, abaxially white villous along veins, adaxially sparsely white pubescent, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite; segments 9 or 10 pairs, ovate to oblong, dentate or incised-dentate, teeth callose. Inflorescences spicate, to 12 cm, interrupted basally; proximal bracts leaflike, distal ones rhomboid-ovate or flabellate, white villous. Flowers small. Calyx campanulate, 3--4 mm, slightly cleft anteriorly, membranous; lobes by fusion appearing 3, unequal, posterior one triangular, smaller than lateral pair. Corolla red; tube bent at a right angle basally, 1.2--1.8 cm; galea 3--4 mm, ± acute in front; lower lip 6--10 mm, middle lobe obovate, smaller than lateral lobes. 2 filaments pubescent, 2 glabrous. Capsule obliquely ovoid to lanceolate-ovoid, 6--10 X ca. 4 mm, apex acute to apiculate. Fl. Jun--Sep, fr. Aug--Oct.

Wet or swampy meadows, thickets; 1500--2600 m. S Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, N Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, N Sichuan [Japan, N Korea, Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia, Far East)]