Perennials. Rhizomes less than 1 cm. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched at base, gray-white hairy throughout, or hairs only along 2 lines. Leaves sessile or lower subsessile; leaf blade oblong to ovate-lanceolate, pubescent, glabrescent, base acute, margin entire, serrate, or deeply incised-dentate, apex acute. Racemes 1-4, axillary from uppermost leaves, villous or hirsute with multicellular hairs (except for corolla); bracts broadly linear, longer than pedicel. Calyx deeply parted, 5-lobed; lobes linear-lanceolate, upper much smaller than other 4. Corolla tube 1/5-2/5 of corolla length, glabrous inside; lobes obovate-orbicular to narrowly oblong. Stamens shorter than corolla. Capsule ovoid-conical, slightly compressed, tapered apically, almost entirely hirsute, apex obtuse and emarginate. Seeds more than 40 per capsule, oblong-ovoid, flattened, slightly convex on both sides, 0.6-0.8 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug.

Alpine meadows, forests; 2700-4700 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, NW to W Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [NW India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Sikkim, Tajikistan].