Melandrium tatarinowii (Regel) Y. W. Tsui; Silene potaninii Maximowicz; S. tatarinowii f. albiflora (Franchet) Kitagawa; S. tatarinowii var. albiflora Franchet.

Herbs perennial, finely retrorse pubescent throughout. Roots yellowish, cylindric or spiniform. Stems ascending or supine, branched, sometimes with adventitious roots at nodes. Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, rarely ovate, 2--5 × 0.5--1.5(--2) cm, both surfaces sparsely villous, margin shortly ciliate, 1- or usually 3-veined, base broadly cuneate or attenuate into petiole, apex acuminate. Dichasial cymes lax, broad. Pedicel 8--30(--50) mm, slender, pubescent; bracts lanceolate, herbaceous. Calyx tubular-clavate, 1.2--1.5 cm × 3--5 mm; longitudinal veins green, rarely violet, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; calyx teeth triangular, margin membranous, shortly ciliate, apex acute, rarely obtuse. Androgynophore ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Petals white, oblanceolate, claws not or slightly exserted beyond calyx, glabrous, exauriculate; limbs obovate, ca. 7 mm, shallowly bifid to 1/4 of limbs, each with 1 small linear lobe or slender tooth on two lateral lobes; coronal scales elliptic, margin entire. Stamens prominently exserted; filaments glabrous. Styles prominently exserted. Capsule ovoid or narrowly ovoid, 6--8 mm, shorter than calyx. Seeds gray-brown, reniform, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Oct.

* Scrub, forested stony mountains, rock fissures; 800--2900 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan.