红叶银莲花 hong ye yin lian hua

Rhizomes thin, with scales, producing slender stolons. Basal leaves 2; petiole 1.8--11 cm, spreading yellowish villous; leaf blade abaxially red-purple, 3-lobed, pentagonal or orbicular-reniform, 1.6--3 × 2.2--5.3 cm, sparsely yellowish puberulent, base cordate; central lobe broadly rhombic-obovate, distal margin rounded dentate; lateral lobes obliquely flabellate, larger than central one. Scape 7--15 cm, villous; cyme 1-flowered. Involucral bracts 3, 3-lobed or undivided, rhombic or broadly so, subequal, 4--11 mm. Flowers ca. 2 cm in diam.; pedicel 3--5 cm, puberulent. Sepals 6--8, white, obovate, 7--9 × 4--5 mm, abaxially puberulent, apex rounded or obtuse. Stamens 2--4.5 mm; anthers broadly oblong, ca. 1 mm, apex rounded. Pistils ca. 10; ovary ovoid, puberulent. Stigma subsessile, subglobose. Fl. May.

* Shady places in valleys; 1800--2200 m. W Sichuan (Tianquan Xian).

Two of us (Ziman and Dutton) believe that this species would be better treated as a synonym of A. baicalensis var. baicalensis .