Root carrotlike, up to 10 × 0.7-0.8 cm. Stems several, caespitose, 40-120 cm, sometimes branched above, usually finely scaberulose. Basal leaves petiolate; blade cordate or truncate at base, margin deeply and irregularly serrate. Cauline leaves sessile; blade filiform, linear, elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, 2-10 × 0.1-2 cm, both surfaces scaberulose or subglabrous, margin entire or sparsely serrulate. Inflorescence a pseudoraceme or a panicle. Hypanthium obovoid, ellipsoid, or campanulate, glabrous; calyx lobes subulate or narrowly triangular, 1.5-5(-7) mm, margin entire or denticulate. Corolla pale to dark blue, blue-purple, or purple, subtubular or tubular-campanulate, 10-17 × 5-8 mm. Disk narrowly tubular, 4-7 mm, glabrous or villous. Style 1.8-2.2 cm. Capsule ellipsoid, 7-9 × 3-6 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 34.

Conifer forests, scrub, grasslands, grassy slopes, sandy places; below 4000 m. Gansu, Hebei, W Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, NE Qinghai, N Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia (Far East, S Siberia)].