Roots carrot-shaped, 25-45 × 1-3 cm. Stems single or caespitose, erect or ascending, or slightly procumbent, 50-100 cm tall; branches slender, erect or slightly spreading, mostly at lower part but those at upper part usually fertile, hispidulous when young. Leaves on main stems smaller and alternate, those on branches opposite; petiole up to 2.5 cm, sparsely hispidulous; blade ovate, oblong, broadly lanceolate, or lanceolate, 1-3.5(-5.2) × 0.8-2(-3.2) cm, abaxially densely hispidulous, adaxially sparsely or densely hispidulous, base slightly cordate or rounded, margin entire or occasionally crenulate or sinuate, apex acute. Flowers solitary, terminal on main stems and branches, long pedicellate; pedicels sparsely white hispidulous. Calyx tube adnate to ovary up to middle, hemispheric, 10-ribbed, glabrous or rarely sparsely white scaberulose; lobes ovate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 10-20 × 6-8 mm, glabrous or apex sparsely puberulent, margin entire, apex acute; sinus between calyx lobes narrow and pointed. Corolla pale blue with dark blue veins and purple spots inside, broadly campanulate, 1.7-2.6 cm, glabrous. Stamens glabrous; filaments slightly dilated at base, 5-6 mm; anthers oblong, 5-6 mm. Capsule semiglobose below, conical above, rostrum acute, 15-20 × 12-15 mm in total; persistent calyx lobes much enlarged, revolute. Seeds numerous, pale brown-yellow to brown, narrowly ellipsoid or oblong, terete, smooth. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 16.
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A herb. It keeps growing from year to year. The roots are carrot-shaped. They are 25-45 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. The stems are 50-100 cm tall. The lower branches are slender and erect and those higher up have flowers. The leaves on the stem are alternate and those on the branches are opposite. They are 1-4 cm long by 1-2 cm wide. They are hairy underneath. The flowers are pale blue with dark blue veins.
It is a temperate plant. It grows in cold desert in north India. In western China it grows in mountain forests and by streams between 1,700-2,500 m above sea level. In the Indian Himalayas it grows between 3,000-4,100 m above sea level.
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