Herbs 6--7 cm tall, glabrescent, drying black. Stems usually single, erect, unbranched, slender, marcescent leaves and petioles of preceding year and lanceolate scales persistent at base. Leaves alternate, mostly basal; petiole 1.5--3 cm; leaf blade long ovate to ovate-oblong, 5--10 X 3--5 mm, abaxially usually white villous along midvein, adaxially glabrous, pinnatisect; segments 4 or 5 pairs, short ovate, minutely crenulate. Inflorescences racemose or subcapitate, 4--6-flowered; bracts leaflike. Pedicel 3--6(--11) mm, filiform. Calyx 8--10 mm, sparsely long pubescent or glabrous, slightly cleft anteriorly; lobes 5, unequal, ovate, serrate. Corolla purple, 1.8--2 cm; tube erect, ca. 2 X longer than calyx; galea bent at a right angle apically; beak bent slightly downward, straight, 4--5 mm; lower lip ca. 1.1 cm, glabrous or ciliate, minutely crenulate. Filaments glabrous or 2 pubescent. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul.

* Alpine swamps; ca. 4100 m. NW Yunnan