Primula sapphirina has a bell-shaped corolla that hangs downwards, lacks spherical hair tufts at the throat, and has shorter flower styles compared to Primula primulina.
It grows in moist rock crevices and moss at elevations of 4000-5000 meters in southern Tibet (Yadong, Cona, Dawang), and is found in Sikkim and Bhutan.
It is a perennial herb with a very short rhizome and numerous fibrous roots. The leaf rosettes are less than 1.3 cm tall, usually forming dense cushion-like clusters, with brownish withered leaves at the base.
The leaves are oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 mm long and 2-5 mm wide, blunt or rounded at the tip, gradually narrowing at the base. The margins are deeply toothed resembling pinnatifid, with sparse white short hairs or nearly glabrous on the upper surface, and short hairs along the midrib on the lower surface.