Herbs annual, 10--15 cm tall, not drying black. Roots fusiform. Stems several, woody, with 2 lines of fine hairs. Stem leaves opposite, short petiolate or sessile, barely 2 pairs; leaf blade orbicular, 4--7 mm wide, scurfy-pubescent on both surfaces; segments 8--10 pairs, pinnatifid, oblong or flabellate, few lobulate. Inflorescences capitate, usually dense; bracts leaflike. Pedicel short. Calyx tubular, 4--5 mm, slightly cleft anteriorly, long pubescent, pubescent on both surfaces; lobes 5, unequal, posterior one ensiform, lateral lobes rounded, serrate. Corolla red; tube 1.1--1.3 cm, slender, sparsely pubescent; galea ± bent at a right angle apically; beak bent slightly downward or horizontal, 6.2--7.2 mm, slender; lower lip ca. 7.5 X 6.7 mm, glabrous, middle lobe oblong, ca. 3.5 mm. Filaments glabrous throughout. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

Alpine meadows, pastures; ca. 3300 m. SE Xizang [Myanmar].