Lychnis wardii Marquand, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 48: 165. 1929; Melandrium wardii (Marquand) Pax & K. Hoffmann.

Stems violet, ascending from ± procumbent base, 10--15(--22) cm tall, sparsely clustered, usually simple, densely glandular hairy. Basal leaves withered at anthesis; cauline leaves usually 4 or 5 pairs, sessile, elliptic, 2--3(--4.5) × 1--1.5(--2) cm, both surfaces and margin glandular hairy, apex acute. Flowers solitary, rarely 2 or 3. Pedicel 1.5--2 cm, densely glandular hairy. Calyx ovoid-campanulate, 2--2.5 × 1--1.4 cm, umbilicate below, open at apex, densely violet glandular hairy at veins; calyx teeth violet, elliptic, 5--7 mm, margin glandular ciliate, apex obtuse. Androgynophore 3--4 mm, long lanate-villous. Petals exserted 8--10 mm beyond calyx, pale violet; claws 1.7--1.8 cm; limbs glandular hairy, deeply bifid; lobes dentate or with small round teeth; coronal scales cuneate, truncate at apex, erose. Stamens ca. 1 cm; filaments woolly-hairy basally. Styles short. Capsule ovoid, 1.2--1.5 cm, 5-toothed. Seeds pale brown, orbicular-reniform, flat, ca. 2 mm, winged.

This species is unique in its group in its hairy petal limbs. The type sheet bears the field note “limb dark slaty blue, pink at margin, coronal scales crimson.”

* Shifting screes, sandy gravelly deltas of glacier streams; ca. 4200 m. SE Xizang.