Royle
Description
Sibbaldia purpurea is a low, cushion-forming alpine perennial of the high Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan ranges, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan (gbif_countries: CN, IN, NP, BT, ZZ, PK), with some 252 GBIF occurrences. It inhabits open alpine turf, gravelly slopes, screes and stony pastures, typically above the treeline in cold, well-drained, exposed sites. The illustrated gatherings come from Kalmura in West Nepal at about 4200 m and Khiar Kutti in Garhwal, India, near 3900 m, both flowering in June as the brief high-alpine growing season opens. In GBIF the name is treated under gbif_status SYNONYM, with Sibbaldia purpurea itself given as the accepted name.
The plant forms dense mats or low tufts from a branched woody caudex, with prostrate to ascending stems and crowded leaves. The leaves are trifoliolate, the leaflets small, wedge-shaped and toothed at the apex, frequently silky-hairy. The flowers are small and borne singly or in few-flowered cymes; they are distinctive within the genus for their reddish-purple to purple petals, contrasting with the yellow flowers of most Sibbaldia, set against a persistent calyx with an epicalyx. The fruit is a cluster of small, dry achenes.
Sibbaldia is a small genus of the rose family closely allied to Potentilla, from which it is segregated chiefly by its reduced stamen and carpel number, and recent molecular studies have repeatedly examined the boundary between the two; some treatments subsume part of Sibbaldia into Potentilla, accounting for the synonymy noted above. S. purpurea is a hardy cushion plant well adapted to alpine extremes. Widespread across the high Himalaya, it is of no conservation concern.
Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Eriksson et al. phylogenetic studies of Potentilleae