Hook.f.
Description
Potentilla monanthes var. sipthorpioides is a small alpine cinquefoil endemic to the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of open alpine turf, damp grassy slopes, rock ledges and the margins of streams and snow-melt flushes in the high mountains, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed plant grows at Dzongri in Sikkim, northern India, at around 3900 m, flowering in May soon after snowmelt. With only nine georeferenced occurrences it is among the more sparsely documented Himalayan potentillas, reflecting both its restricted range and its inconspicuous, low-growing habit in remote high terrain.
It is a slender, tufted perennial herb arising from a slender rootstock, forming low mats or small cushions. The leaves are mostly basal, ternate or digitately divided, with small obovate to cuneate leaflets that are toothed at the apex, green and thinly hairy to silky, on slender petioles. The flowering stems are short and slender, ascending, usually bearing solitary or few flowers. The flowers are small, with five green sepals alternating with narrower epicalyx segments, and five obovate to obcordate yellow petals slightly exceeding the calyx. The numerous stamens surround a domed receptacle bearing many free carpels. The fruit is a cluster of small dry achenes seated on the dry receptacle.
Within the variable Potentilla monanthes complex, this variety is distinguished by characters of leaf division and stature, and its taxonomic limits remain somewhat uncertain pending revision of the Himalayan members of the genus. Its restricted distribution and few records mean its conservation status is poorly assessed; high-altitude grazing pressure and climatic change in the alpine zone are potential concerns for such narrow-range taxa.
Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Soják's revisions of Asian Potentilla