Biennials to 1.5 m tall, densely with grayish yellow stellate hairs. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade oblanceolate-oblong, to 15 X 6 cm, margin crenate. Other stem leaves gradually decreasing in size upward, sessile, oblong to ovate-oblong, base decurrent into wings. Spicate panicle cylindric, to 30 X 2 cm, dense. Flowers usually few fascicled. Pedicel short. Calyx ca. 7 mm; lobes lanceolate. Corolla yellow, 1-2 cm in diam. Stamens 5; filaments of anterior 2 stamens glabrous and of posterior 3 pubescent; anther lobes divergent at base. Capsule ovoid, as long as persistent calyx. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Oct.

Grassy areas on mountain slopes, along rivers; 1400-3200 m. Jiangsu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Asia and Europe, naturalized throughout the Northern Hemisphere].