多枝梅花草 duo zhi mei hua cao

Parnassia multiseta (Ledebour) Fernald.

Staminodes 13-21-branched.

Shaded places in valleys, streamsides, grassy fields; 1200-2200 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shanxi [Japan, Korea, Russia].

Losina-Losinskaja (in Komarov, Fl. URSS 9: 217. 1939) divided Parnassia palustris into four forms. However, after examining a large number of Chinese specimens of this species, the present authors have found that P. palustris is highly variable in many morphological characters, e.g., height of stem, number, shape, and size of basal leaves, position, shape, and size of cauline leaf, punctate marking, shape, and venation of sepals and petals, and number and length of staminode branches. It is not possible to classify Losina-Losinskaja's forms according to these characters. On the other hand, the the present authors accept the two varieties of P. palustris described by Ledebour (Fl. Ross. 1: 262. 1842) based on the number of staminode branches. In the present account, according to Ledebour's delimitation, the population in Xinjiang is identified as var. palustris and the populations in N and NE China as var. multiseta.