Anchusa saxatile Pallas, Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 718. 1776; Arnebia saxatile (Turczaninow) Bentham & J. D. Hooker; Onosma saxatile (Pallas) Lehmann.

Roots purplish brown, thin. Stems erect or ascending, not branched or less branched above, 10-25 cm tall, densely spreading hirsute, short strigose. Basal and lower stem leaves spatulate-linear or oblanceolate-linear. Upper stem leaves sessile, lanceolate-linear, 1.5-4.5 cm × 3-8 mm, densely hispid, apex obtuse or subobtuse. Cymes terminal, gradually elongate, densely hispid; bracts leaflike. Calyx ca. 7 mm, densely hirsute; lobes erect in fruit, subulate, base subtending fruit. Corolla 1-1.4 cm, sparsely strigose outside; tube thin, distinctly longer than limb, usually subarcuate; limb 5-7 mm wide; lobes spreading. Stipe of nutlets ca. 0.5 mm, attachment scar at base of stipe. Fl. May-Sep.

Meadows, roadsides, cultivated ground. NW Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, N Shanxi [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].