Androsace spinulifera (Franch.) R. Knuth

Herbs perennial. Leaf rosettes solitary or 2 or 3 in small clumps. Leaves dimorphic. Outer leaves sessile, waxy yellow, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5--10(--20) mm, short ciliate, apex cartilaginous, acuminate, forming a spinelike acumen. Petiole of inner leaves indistinct to 1/5 as long as leaf blade; leaf blade oblanceolate, rarely lanceolate, (1.5--)3--18 X 0.4--2(--2.5) cm, tapering toward base, densely strigillose, apex obtuse, mucronate. Scapes solitary, 7--30(--40) cm, sparsely spreading hirsute; umbels many flowered, densely hirsute; bracts lanceolate to linear, 4--7 mm, slightly gibbous at base. Pedicel 1.5--2.5 cm. Calyx 3.5--4 mm, parted to 1/3; lobes ovate or ovate-triangular to obtuse, densely ciliate. Corolla deep red, 8--10 mm in diam.; lobes obovate, margin entire to obscurely undulate, apex rounded. Fl. Jun-Jul. 2n = 20.

W Sichuan, N Yunnan.

* Dry grasslands, gravelly slopes, open Pinus woodlands; 2900--4500 m.

Androsace strigillosa (Franchet) R. Knuth var. spinulifera Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 32: 11. 1885; A. prattiana R. Knuth.