Androsace rigida Handel-Mazzetti var. minor Handel-Mazzetti, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 15: 291. 1927.

Herbs perennial, laxly cespitose. Shoots many branched, initially densely pilose, with soft grayish white hairs, becoming glabrescent and dark purple, internodes 0.4--4 cm, with old leaf rosettes on nodes. Leaves trimorphic. Outer leaves usually withered in anthesis, spatulate to ligulate, 2.5--6 mm, constricted at middle, ciliate; proximal 1/3 sheathlike, pale brown or white, membranous, slightly dilated and scarcely wider than distal part; apex obtuse. Medial leaves sessile, spatulate, 2.5--6 X 1--1.8 mm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely hirsute near apex, fimbriate-ciliate, apex rounded, flat or slightly incurved. Inner leaves subsessile, oblanceolate, 5--8 X 1--2 mm, ciliate, midvein sparsely hirsute abaxially, adaxially glabrous, apex obtuse. Leaves on sterile shoots elliptic, ciliate, midvein sparsely hirsute abaxially, adaxially glabrous. Scapes erect, 0.8--2.3 cm, sparsely villous; umbels 2--4-flowered; bracts linear to linear-lanceolate, 2--4 mm, sparsely villous, apex obtuse. Pedicel 0.5--3 mm, shorter than bracts, sparsely villous. Calyx 2--2.5 mm, sparsely pilose, parted to ca. 1/2; lobes narrowly ovate, ciliate, apex obtuse. Corolla pink, ca. 5 mm in diam., apex rounded. Fl. Jun-Jul.

* Dry meadows, in scrub; 3600--4700 m. W Sichuan.