Circaea alpina f. imaicola Ascherson & Magnus, Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 28: 750. 1870; C. hohuanensis S. S. Ying; C. imaicola (Ascherson & Magnus) Handel-Mazzetti; C. minutula Ohwi; C. pricei Hayata; C. taiwaniana S. S. Ying.
Plants 3.5-45 cm tall. Stem densely to sparsely pubescent. Leaves ovate to broadly ovate, less commonly orbicular-ovate, 2-7 × 1.4-4.5 cm, base truncate or rounded, less often broadly cuneate to subcordate, margin subentire to occasionally prominently dentate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescence simple or branched, pubescent with short glandular hairs, less commonly glabrous; flowering pedicel erect or ascending, glabrous; flowers clustered at apex of raceme and opening before elongation of raceme axis, with a minute setaceous bracteole at base. Buds glabrous, rarely glabrescent; ovary with uncinate hairs at anthesis; floral tube nearly absent to 0.3 mm. Sepals oblong to ovate, apex rounded to obtuse. Petals white or pink, narrowly to broadly obovate in outline, apical notch 1/4-1/2 length of petal; petal lobes rounded. Uncinate hairs of fruit unpigmented. Fl. Jul-Sep(-Oct), fr. Aug-Nov. 2n = 22*.
Cool moist places along streams, thickets, deciduous and coniferous forests in mountains; (1500-)2000-4000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [NE Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, N Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, NW Vietnam].
