Herbs annual. Stems much branched above base, 15-30 cm tall, densely retrorse strigose or long hispid. Basal leaves sessile, linear-lanceolate, 0.8-2.5 cm × 2-6 mm, abaxially densely hispid, hairs discoid at base, adaxially glabrous or sparsely hispid, base attenuate, margin entire, apex obtuse. Inflorescences to 12 cm in fruit; bracts lanceolate to narrowly ovate. Fruiting pedicel ca. 3 mm, mostly curved. Calyx 5-parted, long retrorse strigose; lobes lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, to 2.5 mm in fruit. Corolla light blue, campanulate, 2-5 mm; limb 1.5-3.5 mm wide; lobes narrowly oblong to suborbicular, 0.5-2.5 mm. Style short, not surpassing nutlets. Nutlets homomorphic or both homomorphic and heteromorphic, oblong-ovoid, ca. 3 mm, adaxially tuberculate; disc tuberculate, narrowly ovate, center line with extremely short glochids; glochids 0.2-0.5 mm, bases complanate and contiguous.

Sunny slopes, rocky hills, sandy areas, deserts, desert marshes. Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan]