Arenaria oreophila Hook. fil. ex Edgew. & Hook. fil.

Herbs perennial. Stems densely pulvinate, 4--9 cm, densely glandular hairy. Basal leaf blade linear, 1--2 cm × ca. 1.5 mm, midvein raised, base broadened, membranous, margin white, hard, apex acute. Cauline leaves in 2 or 3 pairs; leaf blade ovate or ovate-lanceolate, ca. 5 × 1.5 mm, margin hairy, apex obtuse. Flower solitary, terminal. Pedicel 5--8 mm, densely glandular hairy. Sepals 5, elliptic, ca. 5 × 2 mm, glandular villous, 3-veined, margin narrowly membranous, apex obtuse. Petals 5, white, narrowly obovate, 7--8 mm. Stamens 10; filaments 5--8 mm, those opposite sepals with a gland at base; anthers yellow. Ovary obovoid, ca. 3 mm. Styles 3, linear, ca. 2 mm. Capsule ovoid, equaling persistent sepals, 3-valved; valves 2-cleft at apex. Seeds brown, reniform-horseshoe-shaped, ca. 1 mm in diam., smooth. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.

SE Qinghai, SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan [Sikkim].

Alpine meadows, shifting screes; 3500--5000 m.

Arenaria lichiangensis W. W. Smith.