Herbs perennial. Rootstocks to 2 cm in diam., many headed. Stems purplish, suberect, 10-30 cm tall, subglabrous except for spreading white pilose angles and bearded nodes, usually unbranched. Petiole 1-2 mm; leaf blade abaxially purplish except for whitish veins, mostly ovate, sometimes oblong, 2-3.4 × 0.7-1.4 cm, herbaceous, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire to undulate, rarely shallowly few serrate, apex rounded to obtuse or rarely acute. Racemes terminal, 6-15 cm; bracts ovate, 0.7-1.5 cm, margin entire and ciliate, apex acute. Pedicel 2.5-3 mm, pilose. Calyx purplish, ca. 3 mm, to 6 mm in fruit, pilose outside, yellow glandular; scutellum ca. 1 mm, to 3 mm in fruit. Corolla white, greenish white to purple or purple-blue, 2.5-2.8 cm, sparsely pubescent outside, pubescent at base inside; tube 1.8-2.1 cm, base bent, throat to 6 mm wide; middle lobe of lower lip triangular-ovate, to 9 mm wide, apex emarginate; lateral lobes adnate to upper lip, ca. 2.5 mm wide. Nutlets black, ovoid, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, papillate, adaxially umbonate near base. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

* Grassy slopes, forest margins; 900-4000 m. Sichuan