Herbs, annual, winter annual, or perennial. Taproot long, ± fleshy or becoming woody when old. Leaves basal, sparsely or densely white pubescent; petiole 2-7 cm; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, obovate-elliptic, or ovate-lanceolate, 3-15 × 1-5.5 cm, papery, veins 5 or 7, base cuneate and decurrent onto petiole, margin repand-crenate, irregularly serrate, dentate, or entire, apex acute to obtuse. Spikes narrowly cylindric, 6-12 cm, densely flowered, interrupted basally; peduncle 5-18 cm, white pubescent; bracts triangular-ovate, 2-3.5 mm, glabrous, keel extending near or to apex. Sepals 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, keel not extending to apex; lower sepals narrowly obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic; upper sepals obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic. Corolla white, glabrous; lobes elliptic to ovate, 0.5-1 mm, patent to reflexed. Stamens adnate to near apex of corolla tube, exserted; anthers white, ovoid-ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, 0.6-1.5 mm. Pyxis ovoid-ellipsoid to conic-ovoid, 4-5 mm, circumscissile near base, with 4 seeds. Seeds yellowish brown to black, ellipsoid, 1.2-1.8 mm, ventral face prominent to slightly flat; cotyledons parallel to ventral side. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep.

Meadows, wet mountain slopes, riverbanks, wet places, fields, roadsides; near sea level to 4500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, E Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, E Russia].