[2] Alexander von Schrenk, the naturalist who first formally described the species, named it after colored (pictus in Latin) flowers.

Its young, light green branches are covered in soft hairs but become hairless with age.

Its petals form a basin-shaped tube that are 2.5–7 millimeters long with pink to purplish-red lobes that have distinct darker patterning.

[8] It has been observed growing in sandy, silty soils along streams and rivers and at desert margins.

[5] It has been recorded as being used in central Asia as a textile fiber, and in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a tea for hypertension and hyperlipidemia.