Rhizomes ca. 5 mm in diam. Stems purple-brown, numerous, unbranched, erect or prostrate, 17-37 cm, minutely retrorse hairy. Leaves subsessile, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm, ± succulent, glabrous, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire, ciliate, apex obtuse to acute. Verticillasters on 3-6 upper nodes, in capitula; bracts obovate to obovate-lanceolate, 3.5-8 mm, margin ciliate, 4- or 5-spinescent-serrulate, spines 2.5-3 mm. Calyx red-purple, 1-1.7 cm, densely minute hairy at base, sparsely hairy upward, ciliate, 2-lipped to ca. 1/3 its length; teeth subequal, apex short spinescent; middle tooth of upper lip ovate, slightly longer than lateral teeth, ca. 2 × as wide, lateral teeth lanceolate; teeth of lower lip lanceolate, slightly narrower than lateral teeth of upper lip. Corolla blue-purple, 1.4-1.7 cm, densely white villous outside. Nutlets brown, oblong, ca. 2 mm, smooth. Fl. Jul-Aug.

Used medicinally for bronchitis.

Abies-Picea forests, grasslands; 1400-2500 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia]