Potentilla hypargyrea Hand.-Mazz.

Herbs perennial. Roots robust, terete. Rhizomes often enlarged. Flowering stems tufted, ascending, 5–16 cm tall, recumbent white villous. Radical leaves 6–10 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially white pilose, apex acuminate; petiole villous; leaf blade 3-foliolate or subpinnate; terminal leaflet shortly petiolulate, lateral ones sessile or subsessile, all leaflets orbicular to ovate, 1–3 cm, abaxially sparsely white villous, adaxially densely white sericeous, margin irregularly parted or lobed, or pinnately parted, usually 2-parted on lateral leaflets; segments acute at apex; cauline leaves 1 or 2; stipules herbaceous, abaxially white sericeous, margin parted into acuminate segments; leaflet margin parted into linear-lanceolate, acuminate segments. Inflorescence cymose, (1 or)2- or 3-flowered. Flowers 0.6–1.3 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–3 cm, villous. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, shorter than or nearly equaling sepals, abaxially densely appressed villous, apex acute. Petals yellow, obovate, nearly 1/2 as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Style subterminal, base slightly thickened; stigma not dilated. Achenes smooth. Fl. and fr. Aug–Sep.

Xizang, Yunnan.

Thickets on grassy slopes, meadows on mountain slopes, rocky slopes; 3300--4800 m.