Korea Flora: Deciduous shrub to 1.5m tall. Winter buds elongate-conical; pith solid; branchlets with dense hairs. Bark peeling, untidy.Leaves opposite, lanceolate, oblanceolate or elliptic, (1)2-4 × 2-3cm; apex obtuse or acuminate, base cuneate; adaxially glabrous or pubescent, abaxially tomentose; margins entire; petioles 3-5mm long. Suckers with connate stipules forming sheaths.Flowers axillary; peduncles 2-10mm long, pubescent. Bracts 5-8mm long, pubescent; bracteoles connate, surrounding calyx tube. Calyx 5-toothed; corolla yellowish-white, tubular-campanulate, 12-15mm long, slightly pubescent. Stamens shorter than style, glabrous.Fruit formed from 2 fused ovaries, ellipsoid or subglobose, purplish-black, glaucous.

Chromosome number: 2n = 36.
Flowering May-June; fruiting July-August.
Distribution: Northern and northeastern China, Russian Far East, Hokkaido and northern Honshu (Japan); Pyeonganbuk-do, Pyeongannam-do, Hamgyeongbuk-do, Hamgyeongnam-do, northern Gangwon-do, Baekdudaegan, Jeju Island.
Taxonomic notes: Some authors narrowly divide this into L. altaica Pall., L. iliensis Pojark., L. stenantha Pojark., and L. venulosa Maxim., with Korean plants treated as subspecies of L. venulosa (Voroshilov, 1992). Others take intermediate position treating it as L. caerulea subsp. edulis (Turcz. ex Herder) Hulten (Hara, 1983). Some consider all variations synonymous under L. caerulea (Koropachinskiy and Vstovskaya, 2002). Here treated as L. caerulea in broad sense, considering wide distribution from Europe to Asia, rather than subdividing based solely on pubescence.