Perennial, with densely branched, fibrous roots. Stem simple or with few one-flowered branches, few leafed, erect, glabrous or nearly glabrous. Basal leaves numerous, 10-35 mm, elongate elliptic to lanceolate-oblong, blade either tapering into a long or short petiole, or obliquely tru ncate at base, entire or with a few coarse apical teeth, acute, often cuneate, glabrous, often glaucous. Stem leaves sessile with scarious sheaths, palmatipartite or entire, lobes entire or with a few obtuse lobes. Peduncles in their upper part with a few long reddish-brown hairs, appressed. Flowers 12-18 mm in diameter, yellow. Sepals 4-5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, with wide scarious margins, with reddish-brown hairs. Petals nearly twice as long as the sepals, broadly ovate. Receptacle glabrous or with a few hairs. Achenes arranged in an ovoid to subglobose-ovoid head, glabrous, inflated. Style 1.5-1.7 mm, nearly straight or the tip somewhat recurved.

Fl. Per.: June-July.

Type: In locis humidis subsalis ad B. Tschyia, Bunge s.n.

Baltistan: B-8 Deosai, below Burji la, 14500', E. Nasir & G.L. Webster 6547 (RAW), Yusi Mar, Deosai, R.R. Stewart 20170 A (RAW), Shingo vy., 10-11000', Duthie s.n. (RAW).

Distribution: From Altai mountains and a few locations in eastern Siberia, Tien-Shan, Mongolia & China, to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ranunculus pulchellus is an extremely variable species. Its leaves may be entire or with apical teeth (as in the type), lanceolate with a distinct petiole or nearly linear and gradually tapering into the petiole. Very small, subcaespitose plants with ± entire leaves and flowering stems not more than 3-5 cm high have been described as Ranunculus nephelogenes Edgew. (in Trans. Linn. Soc. 20:28. 1846), but it seems that this morphological aberrations are correlated with higher altitude. Some anthors have included plants with linear leaves of higher altitudes under Ranunculus nephelgenes at K. It is not clear whether plants from Pakistan designated as Ranunculus pulchellus var. longicaulis (C.A. Mey.) Hook.f. & Thoms. with small flowers of less than 1 cm in diameter are identical with the species described by C.A. Meyer. They should, however, not be separated from Ranunculus pulchellus sensu stricto even at infraspecific level. Ranunculus flammula D. Don, non L. is a minor variant of the nephelogenes type, with longer stems, linear leaves and very small flowers.