Japan Flora: Dwarf evergreen densely matted subshrub, 1-3 cm. high, glabrous; leaves thick, obovate-spathulate, 7-15 mm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, rounded to retuse, entire, long- decurrent and petiolelike at base, subclasping, lustrous above, yellow-green beneath, irregularly rugose on upper side, with 1 or 2 short impressed lateral nerves when dried, the midrib strongly impressed above; peduncles 1-2 cm. long, solitary, terminal on the branchlets, nearly naked; bracts 2 or 3, elliptic, shorter than the calyx-segments, the lowermost bracts often near the center of the peduncle; calyx-segments oblong, ob­tuse to rounded, 5-6 mm. long, green, erect; corolla white, 1- 1.2 cm. across, the tube broad, the lobes elliptic-orbicular, ascending, entire, rounded at apex; styles rather persistent, narrowly cylindric, about 5 mm. long, truncate; capsules glo­bose, erect, about 3 mm. across, surrounded by the persistent calyx. June-July. Dry slopes and rocky cliffs in alpine regions.

Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr.); common. Sakhalin, Kuriles, Kamchatka, Alaska, and e. N. America.