Biennial herb; stems one or a few, 2-6 dm tall, covered with appressed and somewhat spreading hairs; leaves hairy, those at base of plant oblanceolate, withering early, 2-7 cm long, stem leaves lanceolate or oblong 3-10 cm long; inflorescence a coiled cyme in flower, then much elongating in fruit, fruiting flowers nodding downward, most flowers subtended by small leaf-like bracts 3-10 mm long; flower petals united into a short tube and spreading 5-lobed limb; corolla 4-8 mm in diameter, blue on limb and white in center, throat of corolla tube with 5 minutely hairy appendages (fornices); nutlets usually 4 per flower (sometimes fewer by abortion), nutlet margins armed with a single row of prickles with small branching hooks at the tips, dorsal surfaces of nutlets papillate,without additional prickles. Flowers July and August.