Cerastium pauciflorum Stev. ex Ser.

Herbs perennial, 20--60 cm tall. Roots slender. Stems caespitose, erect or ascending, pubescent, distally glandular hairy. Basal leaves spatulate, small; cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, 3--8 × 1--2 cm, both surfaces hairy, base attenuate, margin ciliate, apex acute or acuminate. Cyme terminal; bracts leaflike, ovate-lanceolate. Flowers 1.5--1.8 cm in diam.; pedicel slender, 0.5--3 cm, densely glandular pubescent. Sepals ovate-oblong, ca. 6 × 2 mm, abaxially glandular pubescent, margin membranous. Petals obovate or obovate-oblong, 1--1.3 cm, 1.5--3 × as long as calyx, glabrous or pilose at base, apex entire. Stamens glabrous or filaments pilose at base. Styles 5. Capsule cylindric, ca. 2 × as long as calyx, 10-toothed, teeth revolute. Seeds yellow-brown, triangular-reniform, tuberculate. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Jul--Aug.

Gansu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Xinjiang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].

Forests, hillside scrub forests, meadows, wet river banks, wet mountain roadsides; 200--2500 m.