Herbs perennial. Roots conic or shortly fusiform. Stems suberect or ascending, branched at base, violet, 5--20 cm; branchlets numerous, diffuse, pseudodichotomously branched, slender, hard, sparsely white villous or glabrous. Leaf blade oblanceolate, 0.5--2.5 cm × 1--5 mm, papery, adaxially with or without small, clavate protuberances, base attenuate into a short sheath, apex acute, not cuspidate. Cymes conic, sparsely many flowered; bracts similar to leaves but smaller. Pedicel slender, 0.5--1.5 cm, soft, hairy. Sepals 5, green abaxially, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 2--6 × 1--3 mm, midvein and basal veins hairy, base broadened, margin white, ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals 5, white, obovate or broadly so, 3--8 mm, equaling or slightly longer than sepals, apex obtuse. Stamens 10. Ovary ovoid-globose. Styles 2 or 3, 2--5 mm. Fl. Aug--Sep.

Two weakly distinguished varieties have been recognized.

* Pinus forest margins, mountain grasslands; 2600--3600 m. Sichuan, NW Yunnan.