Slender low to short glandular hairy plant. Stems erect, branched. Leaves linear to lanceolate, blunt, untoothed, and alternate. Flowers lilac, with a yellow patch in the lower lip, spurred, 6 to 9 mm long, solitary on slender stalks at the base of the upper leaves, the moth of the corolla open.

Arable land, disturbed and waste ground, railway ballast.

May to October.

Annual.

This plant is fairly frequent in England, Wales and southern Scotland.

Local in Leicestershire and Rutland, nearly always in railway ballast.

In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 173 of the 617 tetrads.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but improved recording since then has meant it is found in more sites than previously known, and does not meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)