Glabrous perennials; 13-27 (-32) cm tall, scapigerous. Roots slender, rootstock prostrate-ascending, slender. Leaves subcoriaceous, glabrous, lamina suborbicular to oblong-orbicular or ovate-oblong, 26-45 x 20-42 mm, pale beneath, obtuse or slightly retuse, the nerves prominent, ending in minute blunt dentations at the margin, base rounded to slightly cuneate; petiole 20-40 mm long, equalling or sometimes exceeding lamina, grooved. Scape glabrous, ribbed, 10-13-flowered; scape scales 1-3, 9-12 x 3.5-5 mm, elliptic-oblong, amplexicaul; bracts similar but smaller and ovate-lanceolate, equalling or longer than the pedicel. Pedicel 3-5 (-6) mm long. Flowers white or suffused with pink, 10-14 mm across. Calyx lobes ovate-lanceolate to broad lanceolate, 3-4 mm long. Petals oblong-orbicular, 5-6 mm long, venose. Filaments 5 mm long, subulate, base dilated; anthers elliptic-oblong, 2.5 mm long, yellow; pollen grains in tetrads. Ovary 5-lobed, globose-depressed, 3-3.5 mm broad; style 4-5 (-7) mm long, curved, ascending, pinkish, persistent; stigma 5-lobed, in breadth less than the terminal part of the style. Capsule globose-depressed, 6-7 mm broad, brown, valves inflexed, sutures whitish with remnants of fibrous threads. Seeds c. 0.25 mm long, in many testa produced at both ends.

Fl.Per.: June-July.

Type: Gumber Nullah, Kashmir, Ludlow & Sheriff 8005 (BM, E).

Distribution: Chitral, Gilgit and S. eastward to Kashmir.

The subsp. karakoramica only differs from the type subspecies in the shorter petioles, broader sepals (not linear-lanceolate), bracts and flowers which may be suffused pink.