Androsace densa Pax & K. Hoffmann; A. gustavii R. Knuth; A. sessiliflora Turrill.

Herbs perennial, forming compact moundlike cushions. Shoots tightly packed, with leaf rosettes superimposed into columns, usually without intervals, 2--3 mm in diam. Leaves sessile, dimorphic. Outer leaves dark brown, ligulate to oblong-elliptic, 2--3 mm, glabrescent, apex obtuse to acute. Inner leaves linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 2--3 mm, abaxially densely white tufted villous on distal 1/2 and on margin, adaxially glabrescent. Flowers solitary, subsessile, hidden in leaf rosettes, with only corolla limb exserted; bracts linear, membranous. Calyx cylindric, 2.5--3 mm, parted to 1/3 or below; lobes triangular, margin with long hairs, apex obtuse. Corolla pink, ca. 3 mm in diam.; lobes broadly obovate, margin entire to obscurely undulate, apex rounded. Fl. Jun-Jul.

Dry meadows, gravelly mountain slopes; 3500--5000 m. S Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan, S Xinjiang, Xizang [Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim].