Silene atrocastanea Diels

Herbs perennial, 15--30 cm. Roots brown, robust, conical, with root crowns. Stems solitary or sparsely clustered, erect or ascending, simple, densely villous. Basal leaves saccate-obovoid or elliptic-oblanceolate, 5--10(--15) × 2.5--4 cm, sparsely villous, margin ciliate, 3-veined, base attenuate into petiole, apex acute or acuminate; distal leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, small. Cymes 3--8-flowered; flowers subopposite, slightly nutant. Pedicel 1--1.5 cm, slender, densely villous; bracts lanceolate, herbaceous, villous. Calyx broadly campanulate, 1.8--2 cm, margin membranous, ciliate, apex acute or obtuse. Androgynophore ca. 5 mm, glabrous or early villous. Petals dark violet, ca. 1.8 cm; claws obovate-lanceolate, ca. 1 cm, ciliate at base, auricles orbicular; limbs exserted beyond calyx, broadly obovate, ca. 8 mm, deeply 4-lobed; lobes linear-lanceolate, subequal, apex acute; coronal scales nearly suborbicular, 1.5--2 mm, with few round teeth. Stamens included; filaments sparsely villous. Styles included. Seeds 2--2.5 mm, winged. Fl. Aug--Sep.

NW Yunnan (Lijiang Naxi Zu Zizhixian).

* Stony alpine grasslands; (3000--)3200--4000 m.

Melandrium atrocastaneum (Diels) Handel-Mazzetti; Silene cupiformis C. L. Tang.