Annuals; inflorescence axes, pedicels, calyces, and capsules usually sparsely glandular hairy. Stems 15-50 cm tall, erect, simple or branched at base, succulent, very sparsely glandular hairy, sometimes glabrous. Leaves sessile, semiamplexicaul, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2-5 X 0.5-1 cm, margin subentire to serrate. Racemes axillary, to 15 cm, many flowered. Pedicel 3-7 mm, straight or apically slightly curved, at an angle of 60-70° with inflorescence axis. Calyx 4-lobed; lobes elliptic, equal in size, obscurely 3-veined, outside glandular hairy, apex acute, erect and appressed to capsule in fruit. Corolla blue to pale purple, rotate, 3 mm in diam.; tube short; lobes slightly unequal in width. Capsule ellipsoid to broadly so, slightly compressed, 2.5-4 X 2-2.5 mm, longer than calyx, emarginate. Style ca. 1.5 mm. Seeds ca. 30 per capsule, slightly flattened, convex on both sides, ca. 0.7 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 18.

Ditches, river sides, wet places; 300-2900 m. Gansu (Yumen Shi), Heilongjiang (Harbin Shi), Nei Mongol (Tongliao Xian, Wulabu Meng), Qinghai (Delingha), N Shaanxi, Shanxi, N Xizang [Afghanistan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; SW Asia, C to S Europe].