(Royle ex Edgew.) Fu
Description
Rhodiola sinuata (Royle ex Edgew.) Fu is a high-altitude succulent perennial of the Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and adjacent China, with comparatively few collections (GBIF lists about 349 occurrences, the European and Central Asian points representing herbarium or database artefacts rather than native range). It grows on rock ledges, cliff crevices, stony slopes and moist alpine turf, generally between 3,000 and 4,500 m. The illustrated plant was gathered in the Indian Garhwal Himalaya near Tali at 3,100 m in September, when the inflorescences are maturing and the foliage takes on autumnal reddish tints.
The plant arises from a stout, woody, perennating rhizome (caudex) crowned with scarious scale-leaves, from which spring several erect to ascending leafy flowering stems. The cauline leaves are alternate, sessile, fleshy, oblong to obovate, with a characteristically sinuate-dentate to coarsely toothed margin. The flowers are small and clustered in a dense terminal corymbose cyme; the species is typically dioecious, with 4- or 5-merous flowers bearing narrow yellowish to greenish-yellow petals, the staminate flowers with exserted stamens. The fruit is a cluster of erect follicles releasing minute seeds.
Rhodiola (Crassulaceae) comprises the Asian-alpine "roseroots" formerly placed in Sedum, distinguished by their thick perennial rhizome and frequently unisexual flowers. Like its congeners, R. sinuata accumulates phenylpropanoid glycosides in the rootstock and is gathered in Himalayan folk medicine, a pressure that, with grazing, warrants monitoring although the species is not formally assessed. Its restricted Sino-Himalayan distribution reflects adaptation to cold, exposed, high-elevation rock habitats.
Author: (Royle ex Edgew.) Fu · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ohba monograph of Himalayan Sedoideae, Hooker Flora of British India