Herbs, perennial (?biennial or short-lived perennial), glaucous, with taproot, forming loose rounded cushions 5-20 cm in diam. Stems fleshy, much branched and leafy throughout, (5-)10-15 cm (to 30 cm in shade-forms). Leaves long stalked; petiole 2-10 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green to glaucous adaxially, orbicular, 1-2 × 1-3 cm, ternate to biternate; leaflets entire to divided, ultimate segments obovate, 5-13 × 2-8 mm, glabrous or often papillose-hairy to ciliate on margins and veins, apex mucronate. Racemes many, corymbose, 3-10-flowered; lower bracts leaflike, long petiolate, 1.5-5 cm, biternate, upper one smaller, 3-divided, margin papillose. Pedicel 1-3 cm in anthesis, basally recurved and elongating in fruit to 3-5(-8) cm. Flowers white or with a slight pink tinge; inner petals with yel-low dorsal crests turning reddish brown after fertilization. Sepals peltate, 1-1.5 × 1-1.5 mm, deeply dentate. Outer petals with broad flat ovate, obtuse to acute limb, with short high undulate dentate or entire crests not reaching apex; upper petal 14-17 mm; spur straight or bent downward at apex, cylindric, 5-8 mm, thin; nectary ca. 3/4 as long as spur; lower petal 9-13 mm, with sharply set off limb 5-7 × 4-7 mm; claw ca. 1.5 mm wide; inner petals 8-10 mm, with rather broad dorsal crests slightly overtopping apex. Stigma peculiar with 4 apical narrow papillae, small lateral geminate papillae, and usually (except in subsp. tibetica) basally with a rounded "ear-lobe" on each side devoid of papillae. Capsule oblong, 5-12 × ca. 2 mm, 1-6-seeded, with basally sharply bent style 5-8 mm. Seeds black, ca. 2 mm, smooth; elaiosome very large, lobed, folded back over seed.
Home