Rhodiola bupleuroides (Wall. ex Hook. fil. & Thoms.) Fu

Perennial dioecious herb. Root robust, branched. Rhizome thick, elongated or stout 1-3 cm thick, nearly obconical. Scaly radical leaves on the apical part of the rhizome. Flowering stems 1-2, rarely 5-10 on each rhizome, simple, erect, glabrous, 5-100 cm high, 1-5 mm thick at anthesis, dead flowering stems deciduous. Cauline leaves, alternate, sessile or shortly petiolate, elliptic, oblong-ovate, obovate, entire-remotely serrate, obtuse or acute, glabrous, 1-9.5 x 0.4-4.5 cm. Inflorescence terminal, many-flowered corymb, bracteate. Bracts similar to the cauline leaves. Flowers usually 5-merous, unisexual, pedicel 2-5 mm long. Calyx 1.5-8 x 0.3-1.2 mm, lobes basally connate, glabrous, purplish, linear-lanceolate, narrowly triangular, entire, obtuse. Petals glabrous, entire, dark purplish-red, obovate to ovate, 2-4 x 1-2 mm in male, oblong to oblong-ovate, 1.5-4 x 0.5-1.5 mm in female. Stamens 10, as long as petals, in two whorls, basifixed, epipetalous 1.5-3.5 mm long, alternipetalous 2-4 mm long. Pistillodes 0.8-2 x 0.5-1 mm, style indistinct in male. Carpels 3.5-9 x 1-2 mm, style 0.2-0.3 mm long, ovules 10-16 per locule. Nectar scales oblong, 0.5-1.2 x 0.3-0.8 mm. Follicles 5-12 x 1.5-2 mm. Seeds 10-16 per fruit, ellipsoid, apex round, brown, 1.4-2.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm.

Caudex erect, dusky, obconical, to 10 × 3 cm. Caudex leaves brown-black, scalelike. Flowering stems 1 or 2, (1-)5-60(-100) cm. Stem leaves alternate, abaxially greenish, narrowly to broadly elliptic, narrowly to broadly ovate, oblong-ovate, obovate, or suborbicular, 0.3-6(-9) × 0.4-2.2(-4.5) cm, base cordate to shortly or long attenuate, margin entire or sparsely serrate, apex rounded, obtuse, acute, or mucronate. Inflorescences terminal, corymbiform, 7-100-flowered; bracts leaflike. Flowers unisexual, male ones unequally 5-merous. Sepals purplish red, narrowly oblong, oblong-ovate, or narrowly triangular, 1-5 × 0.3-1.2 mm, apex rounded to obtuse. Petals dark purplish red, obovate or narrowly so, 2.8-4 × 1.2-1.6 mm in male flowers, 1.5-3 × 0.5-0.7 mm in female ones. Stamens 10, equaling or slightly shorter than petals. Nectar scales oblong or narrowly or transversely so, apex emarginate. Carpels of female flowers erect, broadest at base, 3-5 × as long as petals, apex recurved. Follicles 4-5(-10) mm. Seeds 10-16. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

Himalaya (Nepal to Bhutan), Tibet, N.W. Burma, Yunnan.

Distribution: Pakistan, India (Kumaon), Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Myanmar and S. W. China (Xizang, Yunnan and Sichuan).

W Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

2000-5100 m

Fl.Per.: July-September.

Grows from 2750-3700 m on rocks, crevices and grassy slopes.

Thickets, grassy places, rock crevices on slopes; 2400-5700 m.

Sedum bupleuroides Wallich ex J. D. Hooker & Thomson, J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 2: 98. 1858; Rhodiola bhutanica (Praeger) S. H. Fu; R. hookeri S. H. Fu; Sedum bhutanense Praeger; S. bhutanicum Praeger; S. cooperi Praeger (1919), not Clemenceau (1868); S. gorisii Raymond-Hamet.