Herbs perennial, 30-70 cm tall, with thick taproots. Stems single or several, cespitose, erect, not branched, densely hispid and short strigose, hairs discoid at base. Basal leaves oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 8-12 cm × 5-10 mm, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves lanceolate, 5-10 × 0.5-1.5 cm, abaxially gray-white, densely strigose, adaxially green and white spotted. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, solitary or branched into a spreading or crowded panicle. Pedicel slender, 6-10 mm, to 1.5 cm in fruit. Calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, 1-1.3 cm. Corolla red or purple, 1.2-1.7 cm, densely strigose outside, strigose only along lobe midvein inside; nectary 5-lobed, densely villous; lobes broadly triangular, ca. 1.5 × 2-2.5 mm. Filaments ca. 5 mm, decurrent part expanded, inserted 2-3.5 mm above base in corolla tube; anthers laterally united 6.5-8 mm, included or slightly exserted. Style 1.4-1.7 cm, glabrous. Nutlets gray-brown, ca. 3 mm, tuberculate, shiny. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.