Potentilla eriocarpa Wall.

Subshrubs. Roots robust, terete. Rhizome stout, elongate, woody, densely covered with remains of old stipules. Flowering stems erect or ascending, 4–12 cm tall, together with petioles sparsely white villous, sometimes glabrescent. Radical leaves 3–7 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous, abaxially white villous; leaf blade 3-foliolate; leaflets shortly petiolulate or subsessile, abaxially green, adaxially dark green, obovate-elliptic, obovate-cuneate, or rhombic-elliptic, abaxially sparsely white villous on veins and later glabrescent elsewhere, or densely white villous and later glabrescent, adaxially sparsely pilose or densely white villous, often glabrescent, base cuneate or broadly so, margin proximally entire, distally deeply 5–7-dentate with teeth ovate or elliptic-ovate and apex subrounded to acute, or or 2–5-parted with segments broadly fasciated or lanceolate and apex acute or acuminate; cauline leaves: stipules herbaceous, ovate-elliptic, margin entire or slightly serrate, apex acuminate; leaf blade absent, bractlike, or occasionally 3-foliolate. Inflorescence terminal, 1–3-flowered. Flowers 2–2.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 2–2.5 cm, pilose. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acuminate; epicalyx segments oblong-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, nearly equaling sepals, abaxially sparsely pilose or subglabrous, apex acute, rarely 2-fid. Petals yellow, broadly obovate, ca. 2 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate. Carpels densely twisted villous; style subterminal, filiform; stigma dilated. Achenes smooth, villous. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct.

Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].

Sparse forests, alpine meadows, talus slopes, rock crevices; 2700--5000 m.