Plants 4–7 cm tall. Branchlets usually glabrous. Leaf blade linear-elliptic, 3–4 × 1(–1.2) mm, base tapering, margin spinescent-serrate, glabrous, shining, apex obtuse, mucronate. Inflorescence subcapitate, ca. 1 cm, 2–6-flowered. Bracts oblong-ovate to broadly ovate, ca. 4 mm. Calyx lobes ovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm. Corolla ca. 4 mm; tube ca. 2 mm; lobes as long as tube, patent, rounded or ovate apex usually slightly sinuate. Stamens: lower 5 free from corolla and often surrounding capsule after corolla has fallen. Style ca. 1 mm. Capsule peduncle elongating in fruit to 4 cm, glandular-pubescent. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Pastures, slopes, alpine rocks, cliffs; 3500–4800 m. NW Sichuan, NW Yunnan [Sikkim].