Herbs perennial, 13--60 cm tall. Stems with 2 lines of hairs, striate. Leaves clasping, sessile, linear-lanceolate, 2--7 cm X 3--15 mm, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite; segments 20--25 pairs, subglabrous except for pubescent midvein, margin double dentate. Inflorescences racemose, 6--18 cm; axis densely pubescent; bracts linear, inconspicuous, densely pubescent. Pedicel to 3 mm, pubescent. Calyx 1.2--1.6 cm, densely blackish purple villous, 5-lobed; tube 8--10 mm. Corolla blackish purple; tube bent basally; galea densely long pubescent apically, with purple-red hairs; beak slender, incurved, glabrous; lower lip glabrous; lobes broadly rounded. Capsule broadly ovoid, 1.2--1.5 cm X ca. 9 mm, slightly exceeding calyx. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

Open stony meadows in forests, amidst boulder screes; 3500--5000 m. Qinghai, W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Uttar Pradesh), N Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].