Pegaeophyton scapiflorum (Hook. fil. & Thomson) C. Marquand & Airy Shaw

Perennial depressed herb, without aerial stem; rootstock up to c. 1 cm thick and covered below with withered leaf bases. Radical leaves rosulate, oblong-spathulate or oblanceolate, 15-40 mm long, 2-5 mm broad, entire or obscurely toothed, apex rounded, obtuse to acute, glabrous or sparsely hairy with simple hairs. Scapes (pedicel) I-flowered, 1.5-3.5 cm long, many, directly borne on rootstock. Flowers very variable in size, 4-7 mm across, white with violaceous veins on the petals. Sepals 2.5-4 mm long. Petals 4-6 mm long, c. 3 mm broad. Stamens c. 3:4 mm long. Fruits oblong-ellipsoid, 6-8 mm long, 3-4 (-4.5) mm broad, glabrous, unilocular, indehiscent; seeds few, biseriate, small.

Herbs with slender or stout, apically branched or unbranched caudex (0.1-)0.3-1.5(-3) cm in diam. Petiole 1-8(-13) cm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, elliptic, obovate, spatulate, oblanceolate, or narrowly linear, (1-)1.5-8(-10) × 0.2-1.2(-2.5) cm, somewhat fleshy or not, glabrous or adaxially sparsely pubescent with trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm, abaxially glabrous, base cuneate or subattenuate, margin entire or dentate, sometimes minutely ciliate, apex obtuse or acute. Fruiting pedicels slender or stout, glabrous or rarely sparsely pubescent apically all around with trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm, (1.2-)2.5-15(-20) cm, not persistent. Sepals ovate or oblong, (2-)2.5-6(-10) × 1.5-3.5(-4.5) mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, not ciliate. Petals white, pink, or blue, sometimes white with greenish or bluish center, broadly obovate, spatulate, or suborbicular, (3.5-)5-12(-15) × (1.5-)2-9(-10) mm, tapering to clawlike base (0.5-)1-3(-3.5) mm. Filaments dilated at base, (2.5-)3-5(-7) mm; anthers oblong to narrowly so, (0.5-)1-1.5(-2) mm, sagittate at base. Fruit latiseptate, not geocarpic, oblong, ovate, or orbicular, (4-)5-13(-20) × (2-)4-8(-10) mm; valves nearly flat, extending along part of fruit length, papery, glabrous; gynophore (0.5-)2-5 mm; style 1-2(-3) mm. Seeds (1-)3-10(-12), broadly ovate, brown, flattened, 1.5-3.5(-4) × 1-2.5(-3) mm.

Himalaya (Kashmir to NEFA), Tibet, W. China.

Distribution: Endemic to Tibet and Himalayas.

Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Assam), Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].

4400-4700 m

Fl. Per.: June -July.

Alpine tundra, alpine meadows, alpine brooks, muddy gravelly slopes, dry slopes, gravel near glaciers, grassy slopes, lake shores, moist pastures, stony slopes with unconsolidated screes, wet screes and seepage areas in screes, moss by streamlets, among rocks, rock crevices, gravel in stream beds, boggy ground by lakes, sandy stream edges, by melting snow or running water, swampy ground, glacier stream beds, peaty soil; 3500-5400(-5600) m.