Herbs perennial, 30--50 cm tall, glabrous. Stems caespitose, distally branched, straight, slender. Leaves linear, 1--3 cm × ca. 1 mm, subfleshy, base connate into a short sheath, apex usually acutely conduplicate carinate, cartilaginous. Cymes terminal, dense; bracts triangular, ca. 1.5 mm, margin white scarious, ciliolate, apex acuminate. Pedicel purplish, 2--3(--10) mm. Calyx white membranous between 5 green or deep purple veins, narrowly campanulate, 2--3 mm, lobed for ca. 1/3 its length; lobes ovate, apex acuminate. Petals white, triangular-cuneate, 2.5--3 × as long as calyx, apex retuse. Stamens unequal, shorter than petals; anthers yellowish brown, globose. Ovary ovoid. Styles equaling petals. Capsule slightly longer than calyx. Seeds reniform-globose, ca. 1 mm, tuberculate. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

Chinese records of Gypsophila acutifolia Fischer ex Sprengel are referable to G. licentiana . True G. acutifolia is native to the Caucasus region and has distal stems and inflorescences glandular pubescent, leaves broader, and the calyx incised for ca. 1/2 its length. Czerepanov (Vasc. Pl. Russia Adjacent States, 167. 1995) recorded G. licentiana from C Asia, but without further data.

* Mountain slopes, sands, field margins; 500--2000 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, N Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [?C Asia].