Potentilla virgata Lehm.

Herbs perennial. Roots terete. Flowering stems erect or ascending, or low and spreading, much branched from base, 15–60 cm tall, together with petioles densely appressed villous or sericeous-pilose. Radical leaves 5–20 cm including petiole; stipules dark brown, membranous, subglabrous; leaf blade palmately 3–5-foliolate; leaflets adaxially green, oblong-lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, 1.5–10 × 1–2 cm, abaxially densely white tomentose, appressed villous on veins, adaxially densely appressed villous, sometimes glabrescent, base cuneate, margin revolute, 2–8-parted to 2–8-fid on each side, apex acute or acuminate; segments triangular-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1–3 mm wide, apex acute or acuminate; cauline leaves: stipules green, ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous, abaxially white tomentose, margin entire, rarely dentate. Inflorescence corymbose-cymose, laxly few or many flowered. Flowers 0.8–1 cm in diam.; pedicel slender, 0.8–1.5 cm, tomentose. Sepals triangular-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acuminate; epicalyx segments lanceolate or linear, shorter than sepals, apex obtuse or acute. Petals yellow, obovate, slightly longer than or nearly 2 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate or rounded. Style subterminal, base thickened; stigma slightly dilated. Achenes rugose. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Mongolia].

Sunny mountain slopes, valleys, grasslands, flood lands, Gobi desert sands; 1000--3700 m.