Potentilla sericea Linnaeus var. multicaulis (Bunge) Lehmann.

Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete. Flowering stems many, tufted, ascending or spreading, usually dark reddish, 7–35 cm tall, white villous or pubescent. Radical leaves 3–10 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially white villous; petiole dark red, white villous; leaf blade pinnate with 4–6(–8) pairs of leaflets; leaflets opposite, rarely alternate, at intervals of 3–8 mm, sessile, elliptic to obovate, 5–20 × 3–8 mm, distal leaflets much larger than proximal ones, abaxially white tomentose, sparsely white villous on veins, adaxially sparsely appressed pilose, rarely glabrescent, main veins slightly concave, margin flat or slightly revolute, pinnately parted, apex ligulate; segments fasciated; cauline leaves resembling radical ones but leaflets fewer; stipules green, herbaceous, margin entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescence cymose, many flowered, compact initially, lax after anthesis. Flowers 0.8–1(–1.3) cm in diam. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments linear-lanceolate, ca. 1/2 as long as sepals, apex rounded. Petals yellow, obovate or suborbicular, slightly longer than to 2 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, cylindric, base thickened. Achenes ovoid, rugose. Fl. and fr. Apr–Sep.

Thinned forests, meadows, shady places in ravines, sunny gravelly slopes, field margins; 200--3800 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang [Mongolia].