Japan Flora: Glabrous biennial, 3-15 cm. high, usually branched from the base; basal leaves rosulate, spreading, ovate to narrowly so, or rhombic-ovate, 1-3 cm. long, 7-22 mm. wide, acute, entire, rather narrowly translucent on margin, the cauline leaves ovate-lanceolate, 4-12 mm. long, 2-8 mm. wide, ascending, short-sheathed at the base; flowers blue, 5- merous, 2.5-35 cm. long, few, the peduncles sessle or 1-3 cm. long; calyx-tube 8-10 mm. long, 5-angled, the lobes erect, deltoid- lanceolate, acuminate, about 1/3 as long as the tube; corolla 1.5- 2.5 times as long as the calyx, the plaits subrounded, toothed; capsules long-stipitate, exserted; seeds fusiform, indistinctly reticulate. Mar.-May. Sunny places in lowlands and mountains;  

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. Korea, Manchuria, and China.

var. minor Maxim. Stems few or solitary; flowers 1.5-2 cm. long, pale blue; seeds slightly larger. Wet boggy places in moun­tains; Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr.).

var. laeviuscula (Ohwi) Ohwi. Radical leaves broader, 8-15 mm. long, 6-12 mm. wide; flowers smaller. Alpine; Honshu (Mts. Akaishi in Shinano and Nikko in Shimotsuke); rare.