Stem simple, 7-25 cm tall, proximally glabrous, distally glandular hairy. Leaf buds present only in axils of rhizome scales. Cauline leaves sessile, shiny, lanceolate to linear, 8-11 × 1.5-2 mm, both surfaces glabrous, margin cartilaginous eglandular setose-ciliate, apex acute, rigidly aristate. Cyme corymbose, compact, 2- or 3-flowered; pedicels 5-7 mm, glandular hairy. Sepals erect, ovate to broadly so, 4-6.5 × 2-5 mm, abaxially and marginally glandular hairy, veins 5 or 6, not or partly confluent at apex, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate to spatulate, 8-11 × 4-6 mm, not callose, 5-9-veined, base tapered into a claw 1-2 mm, distal margin glandular ciliate or eglandular laciniate, apex rounded. Stamens 4-5.5 mm. Ovary subsuperior, 3-4.5 mm; styles 2.5-3.5 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep.

Two apparently allopatric varieties may be distinguished: var. gouldii, occupying the W part of the range of the species, and var. eglandulosa, occupying the E part.

One of the present authors (Ohba) as well as Akiyama et al. (Bull. Natl. Sci. Mus., Tokyo, B, 26: 75-93. 2000) believe that Saxifraga gouldii var. gouldii and var. eglandulosa are varieties of S. brachypoda. The types of var. eglandulosa are similar to S. brachypoda in plant size, leaf shape, sepals, and petals. However, the two taxa differ in the absence in var. eglandulosa of axillary buds in the middle and apical parts of the stem. Saxifraga gouldii var. gouldii is characterized by having petals with a single row of sessile or shortly stipitate, small, black glands that are continued for a varying distance along the margin. With the exception of these glands, var. gouldii does not differ from var. eglandulosa.

Rocky or stony hillsides; 4000-4200 m. Xizang [Bhutan, N India (Darjiling), E Nepal, Sikkim].