Twoflower Cinquefoil

Herbs perennial, tufted, pulvinate. Roots stout, terete. Flowering stems erect, 4–12 cm tall, pilose. Radical leaves 2–6 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially white pilose, later glabrescent; petiole white villous; leaf blade pinnately to palmately 5-foliolate; leaflets adaxially dark green, linear, 0.8–1.7 cm × 1–3 mm, abaxially densely white villous on midvein, adaxially pilose, base decurrent and adnate to rachis in apical pair of leaflets, margin entire and revolute, but in basal pair of leaflets sometimes 2-parted nearly to base, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers 1 or 2(or 3), 1.2–1.8 cm in diam.; pedicel 1–2 cm, pilose, proximally with linear bract. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments lanceolate, slightly shorter or longer than sepals, abaxially pilose, apex acuminate. Petals yellow, oblong-obovate, 0.5–1 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, filiform; stigma hardly dilated. Achenes smooth, hairy around hilum. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct.

W. & C. Asia, Himalaya, Mongolia, Siberia, N. America.

Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [N Mongolia, Nepal, Russia (Far East, Siberia); C Asia, North America].

4100-5800 m

Alpine meadows, talus slopes, gravels, rock crevices near snow line; 2300--4800 m.

Potentilla biflora Wilid.; Schlecht. Ges. Nat. Freunde
Berlin Mag. 7 : 297. 1815.
Potentilla bifolia Lehm. Stirp. Pug. 9 : 32. 1851.
Cespitose or pulvinate perennial, with short and thick caudex ; flowering branches scapelike, 1or 2(seldom few-) flowered, erect, less than 1 dm. high, sparingly hirsutevillous ; •stipules lanceolate, acuminate, brown ; leaves basal, ternate, with the middle leaflet deeply 3-divided, the lateral ones 2-divided into linear segments 5-10 mm. long, with more or less revolute margins, sparingly villous-hirsute, in age nearly glabrous above, and with a strong midrib beneath ; flowers less than 1 cm. in diameter ; hypanthium sparingly hairy, in fruit about 7 mm. in diameter; bractlets oblong, obtuse, about equaling the ovate-lanceolate -acute sepals, 3.5-4 mm. long ; petals obovate, slightly emarginate, longer than the sepals, yellow with an orange spot, 4-5 mm. long ; stamens about 20 ; pistils numerous ; styles filiform, long. •
Type locality : Eastern Siberia.
Distribution : Eastern Siberia, Alaska, and the arctic coast to the Mackenzie River.