Herbs perennial, ca. 20 cm tall, drying ± black. Roots several, fusiform, fleshy. Stems single, erect, unbranched, with 2--6 lines of hairs. Leaves mostly basal; petiole 4--10 cm; leaf blade oblong to lanceolate-oblong, 3--8 cm, abaxially sparsely pubescent and whitish scurfy, adaxially glabrescent, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect; segments 10--18 pairs, oblong, margin double dentate. Stem leaves few, 2--4, alternate. Inflorescences capitate, many flowered; proximal bracts leaflike, longer than flowers. Pedicel 4--10 mm, slender. Calyx campanulate, ca. 1.2 cm, densely pubescent, 1/3 cleft anteriorly; lobes 5, unequal, to 2 mm. Corolla pale red, with purplish red galea, ca. 2 cm; tube erect, longer than calyx; galea bent at a right angle apically, narrowly crested; beak falcate, 4--5 mm; lower lip ca. as long as galea, ca. 1 cm, ciliate, middle lobe obovate, emarginate. Filaments densely pubescent. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Aug.

* Alpine meadows; ca. 3800 m. NW Yunnan.