Herbs perennial or biennial, green, 20-35 cm tall, hispid, short strigose. Stems single or several, cespitose, erect or ascending, not branched, slender. Basal leaves linear-lanceolate or oblanceolate, 5-12 × 0.5-1.5 cm, hispid and short strigose, base attenuate, apex obtuse or acute; stem leaves sessile, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 2-5 × 0.6-1.3 cm. Inflorescences terminal, subcapitate, 1.5-2.5 cm wide at anthesis; bracts lanceolate, 3-5 mm, densely hispid, short strigose. Pedicel 2-4 mm, to 8 mm in fruit, densely hispid and strigose. Calyx 5-6 mm, densely hispid and short strigose outside, densely villous inside; lobes triangular-lanceolate. Corolla blue apically, orange basally, tubular, 8-10 mm; throat 3-4 mm wide; nectary ringlike, 1.5-2 mm, membranous, sparsely pubescent; lobes reflexed, rarely straight, triangular, ca. 0.5 mm, with sparsely villous folds. Filaments 1.5-2.5 mm, inserted 4-5 mm above base of corolla tube; anthers united at base, 3.5-4 mm, included. Nutlets brown, ca. 3 mm, densely tuberculate and papillate. Fl. and fr. Jul. 2n = 14.
Open fields, rocky slopes, steppe; at elevations from 2,000-3,000 metres in Nepal.
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