Potentilla sikkimensis Prain, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 73: 201. 1904, not Th. Wolf (1908); Sibbaldia melinotricha Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete. Flowering stems erect or ascending, 6–30 cm tall, yellow hirsute, glabrescent when old. Radical leaves 4–28 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially sparsely yellow villous; petiole spreading yellow hirsute; leaf blade 3-foliolate; leaflets shortly petiolulate or subsessile, adaxially dark green, broadly elliptic or obovate, 1.5–4 × 1–3 cm, both surfaces sparsely yellow pilose, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely sharply incised serrate, apex obtuse; cauline leaves 1 or 2, resembling radical ones but petiole shorter and leaflets smaller; stipules green or green-brown, ovate, herbaceous, abaxially sparsely yellow pilose. Inflorescence terminal, pseudo-umbellate. Flowers 5–6 mm in diam.; pedicel 1–1.5 cm, sparsely spreading pilose. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments oblong-lanceolate, slightly shorter than sepals, abaxially yellow pilose, apex acute. Petals 5(or 6), dark purple-red or violet, obovate, slightly shorter than sepals, apex rounded. Stamens 5(or 6); filaments short. Style subterminal. Achenes ovoid, purple-brown, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Alpine meadows; 3500--4100 m. Yunnan [N Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].