ABSTRACT
Annual or biennial 20-60 cm tall plant. Stems upright, generally branched in upper half, rarely from base; stems covered together with leaves with distant hairs. Leaves lanceolate, soft, greenish, lower leaves up to 5-7 cm long, 1 cm broad, upper leaves sessile, more narrow, 2-5 cm long, 3-11 mm broad. Fertile racemes sparse-fruited, 5-10 cm long, with tiny linear bracts. Fruit stems 3 - 15 mm long, half of calyx, deflexed. Fruits pendent. Lobes of calyx oblong, obtuse. Corolla blue, 2.5 times longer than calyx, limb of calyx almost twice longer than tube, 5.5-6.5 mm in diam. Nutlets 4-6 mm long (together with spinules), broad-pyramidal, glabrous on flanks. Outer areola fine-tuberculate or short-bristly, surrounded by a single row of spinules, their bases merging into a narrow margin. Spinules 1-2 mm long, slender, tender. In Tuva (Zap. Tannu-Ol mountain range), 2n= 22-24.
