Herbs, 15-50 cm tall, glabrous or sparsely villous when young. Roots stout, elongated to 20 cm. Stems with brown-yellow scales near base; branches, slender, angled. Leaves basally opposite, apically often alternate; leaf blade scalelike to broadly linear, 1-4 cm, margin entire or sparsely toothed. Racemes elongated, 3-7-flowered. Pedicel 0.5-1 mm. Calyx ca. 4 mm, subleathery; lobes broadly triangular, subequal. Corolla purple to dark purple-red, 1.5-2.5 cm; lower lip plaits densely glandular hairy, lateral lobes suborbicular, middle lobe ligulate; upper lip ovate, straight. Anthers purple. Ovary ovoid-globose, ca. 1.5 mm. Style linear, glabrous. Capsule brown to dark brown, ca. 5 mm in diam., apex apiculate. Seeds black, ovoid, 0.5-0.7 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Ditch banks, cultivated fields, in waste fields, desert, dry river beds; below 1200 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Sichuan, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].