Biebersteinia odora Steph.

A plant with a pleasant spicy odour. It has a superficial resemblance to some Potentillas. Found in dry rocky areas, scree slopes etc. from 4300-5600 m.

Plant ± suffrutescent, 10-30 cm tall, erect, glandular-pubescent. Rhizome stout, up to 13 cm long, topped by petiolar remains. Leaves cauline (at anthesis), 6-14.cm long, pinnatisect; segment pairs 12-18, sessile, 4-20 mm long, pinnatifid or -partite into obtuse lobes. Stipules lanceolate, 2-3-fid or-partite, pubescent-glandular, brown. Flowers in racemes, c. 1.2 cm broad, yellow, orange in the centre; bract leafy, 4-6 mm long, ovate-oblong, margin often irregular; bracteoles 2, shorter, lanceolate-ovate; pedicel up to 2 cm long, glandular-hairy. Sepals unequal, elliptic-oblong, 7-9 mm long, glandular-pubescent. Petals suborbicular-obovate, base narrow, sparsely ciliate and strigose on the inner surface. Filaments 5-6 mm long, vinous. Styles united at the apex; stigma capitate. Nutlets c.3 mm long, rugose, strigose, slightly curved. Seed glabrous.

Plants ± suffrutescent, erect, with a pleasant odor when fresh. Rhizome stout, ca. 5 mm thick, upper part densely covered with withered remains of petioles. Stem 10-30 cm, few branched or unbranched. Leaves all nearly basal; stipules brown, lanceolate, 2- or 3-fid or -partite, pubescent glandular; leaf blade 6-14 cm at anthesis, 1-pinnatisect; segment pairs 12-18, sessile, 4-20 mm, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite into obtuse lobules. Inflorescences short, few-flowered racemes; bracts leaflike, ovate-oblong, 4-6 mm, margin often irregular; bracteoles 2, lanceolate-ovate, shorter than bracts. Flowers nodding at first, lower ones remote, ca. 1.2 cm wide; pedicel to 2 cm, glandular hairy. Sepals unequal, elliptic-oblong, 7-9 mm, glandular pubescent. Petals yellow, occasionally orange near base, suborbicular-obovate, 1.25-1.5 × as long as sepals, sparsely ciliate and strigose on inner surface, narrow at base. Filaments 5-6 mm, villous. Mericarps ca. 3 mm, strigose, rugose. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 10*.

W Xinjiang, SE and W Xizang [N India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, N Pakistan, C Russia, Tajikistan].

Fl.Per.: July-August.

Scree slopes, near glaciers, rocky and gravelly areas; (1600-) 4200-5600 m.

Biebersteinia emodi Jaubert & Spach.