Authors:
Gill ex Hook. & Arn. Low firm cushion to hummock forming or mat-like contouring the ground or adjacent rocks. Leaves narrowly linear, rounded-tipped, fleshy, 5-30 by about 1mm, more or less woolly only at the base. Flowerheads sessile, 1-1.3cm white florets, the phyllaries often contrastingly violet-tinged, summer. Venezuela to southern Andean Patagonia, in damp alpine turf or low vegetation and flushes with such plants as Hypsela, at 3000-5000m, lower in Patagonia. This is the most widespread and southerly species. W. apiculata is very similar except for slightly broader and pointed leaves and flowerheads equivalent to the largest of W. pygmaea. Southern Peru to northern Andean Argentina, at 3400-5000m. W. caespitosa resembles W. apiculata but with recurved leaves about 1mm wide. Central Peru, on grassy slopes and as an element of the cushion flora at 3300-4500m.
