Plants 8–16 cm tall. Branchlets dark brown, sparsely glandular-pubescent. Leaf blade linear, 6–6.5 × 1–1.1(–1.4) mm, base obtuse, margin spinescent-serrate (teeth usually ending in a glabrous, shining gland), apex subacute. Inflorescence subcapitate, ca. 1 cm, 8–12(–20)-flowered. Bracts elliptic-ovate, 2.5–5.5 mm. Calyx lobes linear-oblong, ca. 4 mm. Corolla ca. 7 mm; tube ca. 4 mm; lobes rounded, ca. 3 mm, patent apex usually slightly sinuate. Stamens: lower 5 attached to corolla, ca. 2 mm. Style purple, ca. 1 mm. Capsule peduncle elongating in fruit to 7 cm, pubescent. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Thickets, alpine meadows, rocky slopes, cliffs; 3500–4100 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Myanmar, Sikkim].