白叶山莓草 bai ye shan mei cao

Potentilla micropetala D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 231. 1825; P. albifolia Wallich ex J. D. Hooker.

Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete. Flowering stems ascending, 10–30 cm tall, together with petioles densely white tomentose or sometimes sparsely tomentose. Radical leaves 3–5 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially sparsely white tomentose or subglabrous; leaf blade pinnate with 4–6 pairs of leaflets; leaflets usually opposite, sessile, long elliptic or obovate-oblong, 0.5–1 cm × 3–8 mm, abaxially white tomentose, adaxially gray-white or green tomentose and pubescent, or sparsely pubescent only, base cuneate, broadly so, or subrounded, margin sharply incised serrate, apex rounded; cauline leaves resembling radical ones but leaflets fewer higher up stem, eventually 3-foliolate; stipules leaflike, adaxially green or dark green, herbaceous, abaxially white tomentose, margin incised serrate. Flower solitary, 4–8 mm in diam. Sepals long ovate, apex acuminate; epicalyx segments elliptic-lanceolate, slightly shorter than sepals, abaxially densely white tomentose, apex obtuse or acute. Petals yellow or pale orange, oblong-lanceolate, shorter than or equaling sepals, apex obtuse. Stamens 5, alternating with sepals; filaments short. Style lateral. Achenes brown, ovoid, partly glabrous and partly shallowly grooved. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Meadows on mountain slopes, sandy river banks; 2700--4300 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NW India, Nepal, Sikkim].