An erect shrub 3 to 5 ft high; young shoots downy. Leaves 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. wide, lanceolate, somewhat fleshy, dark green, glutinous and shining above, mealy white with dark veins beneath; margins entire or occasionally with a few triangular teeth; stalks short. Flowers blue, numerous in dense cymes from the uppermost leaf-axils; corolla 1⁄4 in. long, greyish downy outside, with a ring of long white hairs at the mouth of the tube; ovary downy.
Native of China, especially in the Min River Valley in Western Szechwan, where it was first noticed by E. H. Wilson when collecting for Messrs Veitch in 1903. It is most closely akin to C. mongolica, but is a taller shrub with the corolla hairy at the mouth and viscid leaves. It is a handsome plant, blooming in September.