Herbs perennial, 5--18 cm tall, drying dark black. Roots fleshy, fusiform, fascicled. Stems 3 or 4(--6), unbranched, with 2 or 3 lines of densely rust colored hairs. Leaves mostly basal, usually in a dense rosette; petiole 2--4 cm, sparsely pubescent apically; leaf blade linear-lanceolate, 2--6 cm X 5--13 mm, abaxially white scurfy, adaxially glabrous, pinnatisect; segments 10--25 pairs, lanceolate-ovate, margin double dentate. Stem leaves few, smaller than basal leaves or absent. Inflorescences 2--3(--10) cm, centrifugal, usually densely pubescent, with long rust colored hairs. Pedicel 1--3 mm. Calyx 1.1--1.3 cm; lobes 5, unequal, leaflike. Corolla purple-red; tube ca. as long as calyx; galea bent at a right angle apically; beak 3--4 mm, truncate apically, denticulate; lower lip ca. 1 cm, ciliate, erose. Filaments glabrous or anterior pair sparsely pubescent. Capsule oblong, ca. 1.2 cm X 5 mm. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.