Thesium himalense Royle [I11. Bot. Himal. Mts. 1: 322. 1839, nom. nud.] ex Edgew. in Trans. Linn. Soc., London 20: 88. 1846; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 229. 1886, p. p. T. pachyrhizum A. DC. in DC., Prodr. 14: 646. 1857. T. himalense var. ? pachyrhizum (A. DC.) Hook.f., l. c. 5: 230. 1886. T. indicum Hendrych in Acta Horti. Bot. Prag. 110. 1962.

Herbs, perennial, slender, decumbent, ascending, or straggling, sometimes erect, 10 – 30 cm high, parasitic on roots of other plants; rhizomes brownish, divaricate, thick; branches slender. Leaves sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate, subacute at apex, 15 – 35 x 1 - 2 mm, 1-nerved, glabrous; basal leaves smaller and scale-like, appressed to the stem. Inflorescences simple racemes or panicles, few-flowered; bracts 3, one much larger than the other two. Flowers: 2.5 – 3.5 mm long, bisexual; pedicels 3 – 5 mm long, up to 12 mm in fruits; perianth-tube infundibuliform, 2.5 - 4 mm long; lobes broadly oblong to ovate, cuculiform at anthesis, one or both margins auricled, ca 1.5 mm long; stamens 5; filaments less than 1 mm long; anthers adnate to perianth lobes by a connective of hairs, oblong, less than 1 mm long; style short, linear; stigma capitate. Fruits shortly stipitate, ellipsoid to subglobose or ovoid, 2.5 – 3 mm long; longitudinal nerves distinct.

Fl. & Fr. May – July.

Distrib. India: Himalayas, grassy slopes of alpine regions, at 2500 - 4100 m altitudes. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and China (Tibet, Yunnan).