小短尖虎耳草 xiao duan jian hu er cao

Saxifraga flagellarioides Engler; S. flagellaris Willdenow ex Sternberg subsp. megistantha Handel-Mazzetti; S. flagellaris var. mucronulata (Royle) C. B. Clarke; S. flagellaris subsp. mucronulata (Royle) Engler & Irmscher; S. spinulosa Royle (1835), not Adams (1817).

Stem 2-4 cm tall, densely glandular pubescent. Stolons arising from axils of basal leaves, densely glandular hairy. Basal leaves aggregated into a rosette, spatulate to linear-spatulate, 8-9.5 × 1.6-2 mm, carnose, both surfaces glabrous, margin eglandular setose-ciliate, longest bristles 0.5-1.1 mm, apex mucronate. Cauline leaves linear, ca. 6.2 × 1 mm, abaxially and marginally glandular hairy, apex mucronate. Cyme compact, 7-14 mm, 2-5-flowered, or flower solitary; pedicels to 3 mm, glandular hairy. Sepals erect, ovate to narrowly so, ca. 2.5 × 1 mm, abaxially and marginally glandular hairy, veins 3, not or partly confluent at apex, apex subacuminate. Petals yellow, obovate to elliptic, 4.3-4.4 × 2-2.2 mm, not callose, 5- or 6-veined, base abruptly narrowed into a claw 0.4-0.5 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 1.1-1.5 mm. Ovary semi-inferior, ovoid; styles divergent, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

Rocky alpine meadows, cliff ledges, boulders; 2800-5400 m. Sichuan, S Xizang (Tingri Xian, Yadong Xian), Yunnan [India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].

Saxifraga mucronulata is much confused with other members of the S. flagellaris complex. Specimens from Sichuan and Yunnan identified by Hultén (Svensk. Bot. Tidskr. 58: 93. 1964) as S. flagellaris subsp. setigera (Pursh) Tolmachev (S. setigera Pursh) have been referred in the present account to S. mucronulata. Further study of the whole group is required.

Saxifraga flagellaris subsp. megistantha, treated as a synonym of S. stenophylla in FRPS, is regarded in the present account as synonymous with S. mucronulata. The type of subsp. megistantha has coarsely eglandular setose-ciliate basal leaves and therefore does not correspond with S. stenophylla.