Description from
Flora of China
Potentilla bifurca Linnaeus var. canescens Bongard & C. A. Meyer.
Herbs perennial, 10–22 cm tall, evenly and densely grayish tomentose-villous in all green parts. Roots robust, terete, woody. Stems erect, many branched from base. Leaves numerous, 2–6 cm including petiole; leaf blade pinnate with (3–)5–7 pairs of leaflets; leaflets usually alternate, adjacent, imbricate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, base cuneate or broadly so, decurrent and adnate to rachis in distal 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets, margin entire, apex acute, often 2-fid, rarely entire. Inflorescence terminal, laxly corymbose. Flowers 6–8 mm in diam. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments elliptic, ca. 1/2 as long as sepals, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate-elliptic, nearly equaling or slightly longer than sepals, apex rounded. Carpels sparsely pilose around hilum; style sublateral, clavate, slightly attenuate at base, constricted below dilated stigma. Achenes rugose when ripe. Fl. and fr. Aug–Sep.
Shaded grasslands, flood lands, dry calcareous soils; 500--600 m. Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].