Plants 5--25 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, with numerous fibrous roots. Stems usually simple. Lower leaves 1--3 or more, much smaller to scalelike. Upper leaves 5--10, short petiolate or subsessile, obovate-elliptic to lanceolate, 2--7 X 1--2.5 mm, base cuneate-attenuate, margin entire or minutely dentate, apex short acuminate. Pedicel filiform, 2--4 cm. Flowers in axils of upper leaves. Calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, 4--7 mm. Corolla ca. 2 X as long as calyx, 1.1--1.9 cm in diam.; lobes elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, apex acute or apiculate. Stamens slightly shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 4--5 mm. Ovary ovoid; style ca. as long as stamens. Capsule 2.5--3 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jun. 2n = 90, 112, 160, ca. 170.

Mixed forests; 900--1300 m. N Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, E Nei Mongol [Circumboreal].