Herbs with slender or stout, apically branched or unbranched caudex (0.1-)0.3-1.5(-3) cm in diam. Petiole 1-8(-13) cm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, elliptic, obovate, spatulate, oblanceolate, or narrowly linear, (1-)1.5-8(-10) × 0.2-1.2(-2.5) cm, somewhat fleshy or not, glabrous or adaxially sparsely pubescent with trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm, abaxially glabrous, base cuneate or subattenuate, margin entire or dentate, sometimes minutely ciliate, apex obtuse or acute. Fruiting pedicels slender or stout, glabrous or rarely sparsely pubescent apically all around with trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm, (1.2-)2.5-15(-20) cm, not persistent. Sepals ovate or oblong, (2-)2.5-6(-10) × 1.5-3.5(-4.5) mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, not ciliate. Petals white, pink, or blue, sometimes white with greenish or bluish center, broadly obovate, spatulate, or suborbicular, (3.5-)5-12(-15) × (1.5-)2-9(-10) mm, tapering to clawlike base (0.5-)1-3(-3.5) mm. Filaments dilated at base, (2.5-)3-5(-7) mm; anthers oblong to narrowly so, (0.5-)1-1.5(-2) mm, sagittate at base. Fruit latiseptate, not geocarpic, oblong, ovate, or orbicular, (4-)5-13(-20) × (2-)4-8(-10) mm; valves nearly flat, extending along part of fruit length, papery, glabrous; gynophore (0.5-)2-5 mm; style 1-2(-3) mm. Seeds (1-)3-10(-12), broadly ovate, brown, flattened, 1.5-3.5(-4) × 1-2.5(-3) mm.

Alpine tundra, alpine meadows, alpine brooks, muddy gravelly slopes, dry slopes, gravel near glaciers, grassy slopes, lake shores, moist pastures, stony slopes with unconsolidated screes, wet screes and seepage areas in screes, moss by streamlets, among rocks, rock crevices, gravel in stream beds, boggy ground by lakes, sandy stream edges, by melting snow or running water, swampy ground, glacier stream beds, peaty soil; 3500-5400(-5600) m. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Assam), Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].