Stems more than 3.5 cm tall, to 25 cm at fruiting, simple. Basal leaves 1--3; petiole 1.5--5 cm, base sheathed; leaf blade green or not when dried, pentagonal or pentagonal-ovate, 0.8--1.5 × 1.2--2.5 cm, base deeply cordate, 3-parted; central lobe obovate or flabellate-obovate, apex rounded, 3-lobed, with 2 or 3 lobules or dentate margin; lateral lobes obliquely flabellate, unequally 2-fid. Cauline leaves 2 or 3, similar to basal ones. Flower solitary, terminal, 1.5--2 cm in diam. Sepals 5, yellow and caducous, or white inside, purplish outside and persistent, green or not when dried, obovate or ovate, 6--10(--17) × 3.5--9 (--15) mm, apex rounded, usually caducous. Petals spatulate-linear, shorter than stamens, 2--3 × ca. 0.5 mm, apex rounded. Stamens 3.5--5 mm. Follicles 6--16, ca. 1 cm; persistent style ca. 1 mm. Seeds ca. 1 mm, ellipsoid-globose, smooth. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

Marshes, alpine grasslands; 2300--4800 m. S and SW Gansu, E and S Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang [Bhutan, N Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].