髯毛无心菜 ran mao wu xin cai

Herbs perennial, long nodose hairy and shortly glandular hairy. Roots clustered, spinose or conic. Stems usually solitary, branched below middle, 10--30 cm, densely glandular hairy. Leaf blade pale green abaxially, greenish adaxially, orbicular-obovate or orbicular, 0.5--1.5 cm × 3--10 mm, both surfaces glandular pubescent, base attenuate, margin long white ciliate, apex obtuse or acute. Cymes dichotomously branched, few to many flowered; bracts leaflike, small. Pedicel 1--2.5 cm, densely glandular pubescent. Sepals 5, lanceolate, 4--5 mm, densely glandular pubescent abaxially, 3-veined. Petals 5, white or pink, more than 2 × as long as sepals, apex fimbriate. Stamens 10; 5 filaments inflated at base; anthers dark violet or yellow-brown. Ovary ovoid; ovules numerous. Styles 2, linear. Capsule 4-valved. Seeds 2--4. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep.

* Scrub, alpine meadows, grasslands, shifting screes; 2400--4800 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

Two varieties have been recognized. The distinguishing characters seem to be only a matter of degree, and the variation pattern should be studied in the field. Perhaps this variation should not be the basis for formal recognition of taxa.