Androsace graminifolia C. E. C. Fisch.

Herbs perennial, forming dense mats. Leaf rosettes borne on branched short caudicules, with dense remains of old leaves at base. Leaves indistinctly dimorphic, sessile. Outer leaves linear-lanceolate, 4--7 X 0.4--0.8 mm, long ciliate. Inner leaves linear to linear-lanceolate, 10--25 X 1--1.8 mm, glabrous or minutely strigillose on conspicuously raised midvein abaxially, base slightly narrowed, margin cartilaginous and semi-transparent, apex spinelike. Scapes 1--3 cm, with dense long whitish tangled hairs; umbels subcapitate, 5--15-flowered; bracts leaflike, ovate to broadly lanceolate, ca. 2.5--6 X 1--2.5 mm, sparsely ciliate proximally, margin cartilaginous, apex acute. Pedicel to 3 mm, villous. Calyx 2.5--3 mm, densely hirtellous-pubescent, parted to ± middle; lobes triangular, long ciliate, costate, apex acute to sometimes spinelike. Corolla purplish red, 4--5 mm in diam.; lobes broadly obovate, margin entire to obscurely undulate, apex rounded. Fl. Jun-Aug.

S Xizang

* Dry meadows, gravelly slopes; 3800--4700 m.