Herbs perennial, cespitose, ca. 4.5 cm tall. Stem brown glandular piliferous, crisped glandular villous at leaf axils. Basal leaves with petiole ca. 8 mm, crisped glandular villous at margin; leaf blade narrowly oblanceolate, 8-10 × 1-1.2 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Cauline leaves sessile, oblong to linear, 4-10 × 1-1.1 mm, brown crisped glandular villous only near base. Flower solitary; pedicel ca. 1.1 cm, dark brown glandular hairy. Sepals erect or spreading, ovate-elliptic, 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous, veins 3 or 4, not confluent at apex, apex obtuse. Petals yellow, obovate, 3.8-4.5 × 2-2.8 mm, not callose, 3- or 4-veined, base abruptly contracted into a claw ca. 0.4 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens ca. 3.5 mm. Ovary subsuperior, ca. 3 mm; styles 0.6-1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

The present authors have provisionally retained Saxifraga lepidostolonosa, described from Bhutan, as the name for this species. It is not clear whether S. lepida Harry Smith (loc. cit.: 239), described from Bhutan and Nepal, is distinct. The two taxa appear to differ chiefly in that the former produces stolons from the basal leaf rosettes (although examination of the type specimen shows that not every plant does this). There are other minor differences in sepal orientation (spreading but sometimes reflexed in S. lepida) and in sexuality (dioecious in S. lepida but apparently hermaphroditic in S. lepidostolonosa). Despite this, there would appear to be a case for merging the two taxa, as was done by Grierson (Fl. Bhutan 1(3): 510. 1987), who recorded the (merged) species from S Xizang (Chumbi, i.e., Yadong Xian). For the purposes of priority, the choice of the first author to unite them must be followed, because the two names were published simultaneously. Grierson (loc. cit.) chose S. lepida.

Alpine meadows; ca. 4700 m. S Xizang (Cona Xian) [Bhutan].