Shrubs procumbent, 8–20 cm tall, much branched below. Twigs terete, brown hispidulous. Leaves dense; petiole ca. 1 mm; leaf blades dimorphic, smaller ones usually elliptic, 3–4 mm, larger ones obovate or oblong, 0.8–1.4 cm × 6–8 mm, usually broadest above middle, papery-leathery, glabrous, or when young abaxially scattered brown shortly hispidulous, secondary veins 2 or 3 pairs, slightly raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, fine veins inconspicuous abaxially, impressed adaxially, base cuneate, margin slightly recurved, serrulate, apex obtuse-rounded, mucronulate. Flowers solitary, axillary, glabrous. Pedicel 2–3 mm; bracts absent; bracteoles 2, apical, suborbicular, ca. 2 mm. Calyx lobes ovate-triangular, ca. 2 mm. Corolla white, broadly campanulate, 4–5 mm; lobes often erect, oblong-triangular, ca. 2 mm. Stamens ca. 2 mm; filaments rhombic; thecae 2-awned. Ovary glabrous. Calyx at fruiting dark blue; capsule globose, ca. 6 mm in diam. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Oct.

This species has been confused with Gaultheria sinensis. According to Airy Shaw (in the protologue), G. hypochlora differs in having leaves markedly obovate, thinner, drying a very characteristic light green abaxially, with a rounded apex, and corollas broadly campanulate.

Abies forest margins, rocky places in Rhododendron thickets, grassy slopes, alpine grasslands; 3000–3600 m. W Sichuan, NW and SE Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India (Assam), Myanmar].