Herbs perennial, 50--80 cm tall, glabrous. Roots brownish to brown-gray, thick, ca. 1 cm in diam., woody. Stems several, caespitose, distally branched. Leaves sessile, linear-lanceolate, 3--6 cm × 1--7 mm, midvein abaxially prominent, base narrowed, apex long acuminate. Cymes lax; bracts lanceolate, margin slightly membranous, ciliate, apex acuminate to caudate. Pedicel 4--10 mm. Calyx campanulate, 3--4 mm, 5-lobed for 1/3--1/2 its length; lobes ovate-triangular, veins 5, extending to apex, green, margin white, broadly membranous, apex acute. Petals pinkish or pinkish white, obovate-oblong, ca. 3 × as long as calyx, base narrowed, apex retuse or truncate. Stamens shorter than petals. Ovary ovoid. Styles long exserted. Capsule ovoid, longer than calyx. Seeds brown-black, compressed reniform-globose, 1.2--1.5 mm, elevated striate; raphe acutely tuberculate. Fl. Jun--Sep, fr. Jul--Oct.

Hills, dry rocky slopes, steppes, fixed dunes. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shanxi [E and N Mongolia, Russia (Far East, Siberia)].