Herbs perennial, 6--12 cm tall, slightly drying black or not. Roots numerous, fascicled, ± fusiform. Stems 1--3, 1--2 cm tall or absent. Leaves mostly basal; petiole 0.1--2.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade lanceolate-linear, 1.5--4 cm X 1.5--8 mm, adaxially glabrous to densely pubescent, sometimes glandular pubescent, pinnatifid; segments 9--30 pairs, crenate-dentate. Inflorescences centrifugal, 3- to more than 20-flowered. Calyx ca. 1.1 cm, 2/5 cleft anteriorly; lobes 2, 3, or 5, unequal, grouped posteriorly, serrate apically, long ciliate. Corolla purple-red throughout or with yellowish white throat or white to cream with purple beak; tube 3--3.5 cm, long pubescent; galea bent at a right angle apically, stout, crested or not in front; beak straight, 5--6 mm, slender, deeply 2-cleft with linear lobes, to 3 mm; lower lip deeply lobed, lobes ± equal, middle lobe rounded to emarginate. Filaments pubescent. Capsule obliquely oblong, ca. as long as calyx, apiculate. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Sep.

* Alpine meadows; 4000--5300 m. S Gansu, E Qinghai, W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang, NW Yunnan