Saxifraga likiangensis Franch.

A very broad view of Saxifraga likiangensis has been adopted in the present account.

Plants many branched, 1.5-4.5 cm tall, with shoots forming cushions. Flowering stem initially embedded among rosette leaves and rarely visible, elongated after anthesis and in fruit and then ca. 1.1 cm taller than rosette leaves, glandular hairy. Shoot leaves subimbricate, aggregated into a rosette; leaf blade subobpandurate-oblong to narrowly ovate or narrowly obovate, abaxially convex, adaxially concave, 3-5.6 × 1-2.1 mm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, chalk glands 3, margin ± setose-ciliate, apex ± recurved, acute or mucronate. Cauline leaves 4-8, spatulate- or oblanceolate-oblong to oblong, abaxially convex, adaxially subconcave, 3.3-5.3 × 1-1.5 mm, leathery, abaxially ± glandular hairy, adaxially glabrous, chalk glands 1(-3), margin glandular ciliate, apex ± recurved, obtuse or acute. Flower solitary; pedicel initially nearly absent, then elongated, to 2 mm, glandular hairy; bracts oblong to spatulate-oblong, 3.3-4 × ca. 1 mm, leathery, glandular hairy abaxially proximally and at margin, glabrous adaxially, chalk gland 1, apex acute, glabrous. Sepals erect, ovate to broadly so, 2.1-4 × 1.5-2.8 mm, leathery, abaxially and marginally glandular hairy, adaxially glabrous, chalk glands (1 or)3, veins 3-7, not, partly, or fully confluent at apex, apex usually obtuse, rarely mucronate, glabrous. Petals usually white, rarely yellowish, obovate or broadly so or elliptic to orbicular, 3.3-9 × 2.3-5 mm, 5-9-veined, base gradually narrowed into a claw 0.9-2 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 1.1-6.2 mm. Carpels 2-6.3 mm; ovary semi-inferior, with an annular nectary disc; styles 1-2 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

S Qinghai (Nangqên Xian), C Sichuan (Baoxing Xian), E and S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar].

Forests, scrub, alpine rock crevices; 3000-5600 m.

Chondrosea likiangensis (Franchet) Losinskaja; Saxifraga calcicola J. Anthony; S. mundula H. Smith.