Herbs perennial, tufted, pulvinate. Roots stout, terete, woody. Flowering stems 1.5–3 cm tall. Radical leaves: stipules brown, broad, membranous, abaxially sparsely villous, later glabrescent; leaf blade 3-foliolate; leaflets sessile, linear-lanceolate or narrower, 0.5–1.5 cm × ca. 2 mm, adaxially densely villous when young, later both surfaces pilose or glabrescent, base markedly or inconspicuously articulate, margin entire, slightly revolute, apex acute. Flower solitary, to 1.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–2 cm, densely villous, with linear bract. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acuminate; epicalyx segments elliptic-lanceolate, nearly equaling or slightly longer than sepals, abaxially sparsely villous, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, filiform; stigma hardly dilated. Achenes smooth. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Alpine meadows, gravels near snow line, bare rocks; 3200--4800 m. SW Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.