Herbs biennial or perennial. Stems erect or prostrate, dichotomously branched, slender, 5--40 cm, pubescent along 1 side. Leaves sessile or petiolate; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or suborbicular, 2--10 × 2--7 mm, both surfaces glabrous, or sparsely villous only on petiole, 1-veined, base rounded, apex obtuse or mucronulate. Cymes axillary and few flowered or flower solitary; bracts similar to leaves but smaller. Pedicel 5--10 mm, glabrous or very sparsely pubescent. Sepals 5, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or ovate, 3--4 mm, glabrous, margin narrowly membranous, apex acute. Petals 5, white, obovate, shorter than sepals, base attenuate, apex obtuse. Stamens 10, shorter than sepals. Ovary ovoid. Styles 3, linear. Fl. May--Jul.

Forests, scrub meadows, alpine meadows, stony valleys; 2300--4500 m. S Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, ?Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].