Annual or rarely biennial herb, 20–120 cm high, erect; branches 1–several from base, densely covered with coarse spreading hairs. Leaves densely hairy, apex acute or obtuse, margins entire; rosette leaves oblanceolate to obovate, 4–25 cm long, 8–70 mm wide; cauline leaves oblong-lanceolate, bases cordate to auriculate. Inflorescence conical, cymes elongated; bracts shorter or longer than sepals. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 8–11 mm long, acute, elongating to c. 15 mm in fruit, hairy; corolla 20–30 mm long, hairy outside and inside, purplish-blue, rarely pink or white, lobes broad-ovate, 2–6 mm long, much shorter than tube; nectary scales 5, arranged around ovary; stamens inserted near throat, posterior 2 long-exserted from corolla, others more or less included. Mericarps 2–3 mm long, rugose with pointed tubercles, grey-brown. Flowers mainly Jul.–Jan.