Plants perennial. Stems erect, 20-50 cm, pilose or glabrescent. Petiole 0-14 cm; leaf blade ovate to triangular-ovate, 2-7 × 3.5-5 cm, adaxially appressed pilose, abaxially pubescent along veins, purple-brown glandular, base hastate or rarely cordate, margin crenate or double crenate, apex acute to subobtuse. Inflorescences densely villous, glandular pubescent; verticillasters 4-flowered, 4-8 ± remote in terminal racemes or panicles; bracts ovate, shorter to longer than calyx. Pedicel ca. 3 mm. Calyx campanulate, ca. 1-1.5 cm in flower, glandular pilose or pilose, sparsely purple-brown glandular, 2-lipped to ca. 1/3 its length; upper lip triangular-ovate, ca. 3 × 6 mm, apex 3-mucronate; lower lip slightly longer than upper, ca. 5 × 6 mm; teeth triangular, apex acute. Corolla yellow or brown or purple spotted on middle lobe, 2.3-3 cm; tube obliquely pilose annulate inside, cylindric toward base, curved upward, dilated at throat; upper lip ± falcate/galeate, 7-10 mm; middle lobe of lower lip subobovate to subflabellate, ca. 0.8-1.8 cm wide; lateral lobes nearly semicircular; filaments ca. 7 mm; connectives ca. 9 mm, upper arms ca. 5 mm, lower arms ca. 4 mm. Style slightly exserted. Nutlets unknown. Fl. Jul.

Closely related to Salvia bulleyana and often regarded as a synonym of it.

* Forests, forest margins, hillsides, grasslands; 2400-4000 m. Sichuan, Yunnan