Antennaria nana J. D. Hooker & Thomson ex C. B. Clarke, Compos. Ind. 100. 1876.

Herbs, perennial, pulvinate, forming small clusters. Rhizome short, to 2 cm, densely covered with brown decayed leaves with dense radical rosettes of sterile leaves and numerous filiform radicals, rhizome emitting 1-5 creeping and branching brown scaly stolons up to 10 cm. Stems solitary, more rarely 2 or 3, usually to 5 cm tall, rarely higher, with 3-7 leaves, entire plant covered with light gray lax tomentum and violet below; stems often not developed at all and plant forming sessile heads, not exceeding 1.5-2 cm in height. Leaves long spatulate to spatulate-oblong; radical leaves to 20 × ca. 5 mm; cauline leaves erect, to 1.5 cm and narrower, equally pubescent on both sides. Capitula (1-)3-5, dioecious or heterogamous, very compact, 6-15 mm in diam.; bracteal leaves not different from cauline ones, erect, not exceeding capitulum, but more often shorter, not forming a star. Phyllaries lanceolate, ca. 6 mm, thinly acute and scarious at apex, brown to almost black, abaxially often green. Male florets with corolla ca. 4 mm, pappus ca. 6 mm; female florets with corolla ca. 6 mm, pappus 8-9 mm. Pappus white, slightly exceeding corollas and phyllaries and forming a prominent compact white cap. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Aug.

Alpine meadows, thickets, marshes; 2100-5000 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan].