Minuartia biflora (L.) Schinz & Theil. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 2, 7: 404. 1907; M. A. Rau, High Alt. Fl. Pl. 72. 1975. Stellaria biflora L., Sp. Pl. 422. 1753.

Herbs, perennial, slender, caespitose, dwarf; vegetative shoots prostrate or decumbent; flowering shoots more or less erect, 3 - 8 cm long, glabrous. Leaves crowded and imbricate on vegetative shoots, loosely arranged on flowering shoots, linear, slightly connate at base, dentate-crenate along margins, acute at apex, 7 - 13 x 0.6 - 1.2 mm, glabrous, flexuous, 1 - 3-nerved; lateral nerves usually obscure. Flowers paired, terminal or axillary, 1 - 3; pedicels 2 - 4 mm long, verrucose. Sepals 5, ovate-oblong, acute at apex, 4 - 5 x 1.5 - 2 mm, narrowly scarious-margined, glabrous, greenish white, 3-nerved, erect at anthesis. Petals oblong, as long as or slightly longer than sepals, membranous, finely nerved inside. Stamens 10; filaments 2 - 2.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers oblong, ca 0.5 mm long. Capsules 3-valved, slightly longer than sepals, glabrous, shiny; seeds ovoid, reddish, smooth or very obscurely reticulate.

Fl. & Fr. July - Sept.

Distrib. India: Alpine Himalayas, above 3300 m. Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Arctic Eurasia and the Alps.