雪山无心菜 xue shan wu xin cai

Herbs. Roots conic, wiry toward tip. Stems erect, dichotomously branched, yellowish or violet, slender, cylindric, 4--8 cm, white pubescent on 1 or 2 sides. Basal leaf blade ligulate, gradually inflated distally, small, soon withering. Distal cauline leaf blade often excurved, linear-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 cm × 2 mm, slightly fleshy, glabrous, 1-veined, base attenuate into a very short sheath, apex obtuse. Cymes few flowered. Pedicel recurved at anthesis, suberect in fruit, 4--13 mm, wiry, glandular villous. Sepals 5, elliptic, ca. 4 mm, glandular pubescent abaxially, veins absent, margin membranous, apex often excurved. Floral disc orbicular, with 5 elliptic, flat glands. Petals 5, white or rose, narrowly obovate, shorter than or equaling sepals, with very slender veins, base clawed, apex emarginate or shallowly 2-cleft. Stamens 5; filaments slightly shorter than petals; anthers yellow or green. Ovary obovoid, ca. 0.5 mm. Styles 2, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary. Capsule ovoid, ca. 4 mm, 4-lobed, apex subacute. Seeds 8, large, obtusely tuberculate. Fl. and fr. Jul--Aug.

* Alpine meadows; 4400--4700 m. NW Yunnan.