Potentilla saundersiana Royle

Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete, rarely slender. Flowering stems erect or ascending, rarely low and tufted, 10–20 cm tall, together with petioles white tomentose and pilose. Radical leaves 2–5 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially white villous or glabrescent; leaf blade subpinnately or palmately 3–7(or 8)-foliolate; leaflets sessile, adaxially green or grayish green, oblong-obovate, rarely broadly obovate, 0.5–2 cm × 4–10 mm, abaxially densely white tomentose, appressed pilose on veins, adaxially sparsely appressed pilose or densely appressed sericeous, base cuneate, margin slightly obtusely or acutely many incised serrate, rarely lobed to parted, apex obtuse, rarely acute; cauline leaves 1 or 2; stipules green, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous, abaxially white tomentose and pilose, margin usually entire, apex acute or acuminate; leaf blade 3–5-foliolate; leaflets resembling those of radical leaves. Inflorescence terminal, laxly cymose, 1(or 2)- or many flowered. Flowers 1–1.4 cm in diam.; pedicel 1–3 cm, white tomentose. Sepals triangular-ovate or triangular-lanceolate; epicalyx segments lanceolate or elliptic, shorter than or nearly equaling sepals, abaxially white tomentose and pilose, apex acute or 1–3(–5)-fid. Petals yellow, obovate, slightly longer than or ca. 2 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, base inconspicuously thickened; stigma slightly dilated. Achenes smooth. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Himalaya (Nepal, Bhutan), Tibet, China.

Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].

3100-4900 m

Alpine thickets and meadows, gravel fields; 2600--5200 m.