Losinsk.
Description
Micranthes pallida (formerly placed in Saxifraga, as reflected in the source link) is a Himalayan rosette herb distributed across the high mountains from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal and Bhutan into south-western China and northern Myanmar; with over 650 georeferenced occurrences (CN, NP, IN, BT, PK, MM) it is one of the more frequent members of its group. It inhabits damp alpine meadows, mossy rock ledges, stream margins and shaded slopes, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The plant recorded at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, flowering in the brief alpine summer, is characteristic of its cool, moist montane-to-alpine habitat.
It is a perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves on a short rhizome. The leaves are spathulate to obovate or broadly ovate, with a cuneate base tapering into a broad petiole, the margins coarsely toothed or crenate, and the blade thin-textured and often somewhat pale or glaucous. From the rosette rises a slender, glandular-pubescent flowering stem bearing a lax, often paniculate or corymbose cyme of small flowers. Each flower has five spreading whitish to pale greenish petals, ten stamens and a half-inferior, bicarpellate ovary that ripens into a many-seeded, two-beaked capsule.
Micranthes is now widely recognised as a genus distinct from Saxifraga sensu stricto, corresponding to the former Saxifraga sect. Micranthes, supported by molecular and morphological evidence; M. pallida belongs to this assemblage of broad-leaved, rosette-forming species. Adapted to the harsh alpine regime through its perennating rhizome and ground-hugging habit, it is widespread and not regarded as threatened across its extensive range.
Author: Losinsk. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Gornall's revision of Saxifragaceae