Herbs, 5-8 cm tall. Lateral roots to 15 cm or longer, fleshy. Rhizomes obliquely elongated, to 5 cm. Leaves 3-6, basal; petiole 1-5 cm, flattened, broadly winged, base sheathlike; leaf blade ovate, nearly as long as petiole, base broadly cuneate, margin crenate, apex rounded. Scapes 2 to few, erect or ascending, slightly longer or rarely shorter than leaves; spikes ovoid, 1.5-2 cm; bracts obovate to spatulate, ca. 8 mm, basally on inflorescence, papery. Calyx 2-lobed; lobes lanceolate, 2-3 mm, membranous, margin ciliolate. Corolla blue-purple, 6-7 mm; tube straight, ca. 2 X as long as limb; lower lip lobes 2, narrowly elliptic; upper lip unlobed, ovate to oblong, 1.5-2 mm wide, emarginate to truncate. Stamens exserted. Style slightly shorter than corolla; stigma minute, capitate. Fruit elliptic, ca. 7 mm, 1-seeded. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

Alpine grassland; 4000-5300 m. Gansu, Qinghai, NW Sichuan, Xizang [Bhutan].