(Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin
Description
Anemonastrum rupestre (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin is an alpine perennial of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 223 occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits open alpine meadows, rocky slopes, screes and grassy ledges, mostly between 3,000 and 4,500 m. The photographed plants span this range: one from Helambu, Koktrok, in central Nepal at 3,100 m flowering in May, and another from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4,300 m in June, illustrating its broad altitudinal occupation of the subalpine to alpine zone.
It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a stout rhizome, with the leaves largely basal and long-petiolate; the lamina is palmately divided into lobed and toothed segments. The flowering scape bears an involucre of leaf-like bracts subtending a few-flowered umbel-like cyme. The flowers lack true petals; the showy perianth consists of several white (sometimes pinkish or bluish-tinged) petaloid sepals surrounding numerous stamens and a head of free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of laterally compressed, glabrous to pubescent achenes with a short persistent style.
The species was traditionally placed in Anemone, but molecular and morphological studies have led to its transfer to the segregate genus Anemonastrum (Ranunculaceae), characterised by basal leaves, bracteate scapes and compressed achenes. This taxonomic realignment reflects the modern reclassification of the Anemone alliance. As a widespread high-altitude element of the Sino-Himalayan flora occupying extensive natural habitat, it is not of conservation concern, though it remains subject to grazing pressure across its alpine pastures.
Author: (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Mosyakin reclassification of Anemone s.l., Ziman & Ehrendorfer studies of Anemone