索白拉虎耳草 suo bai la hu er cao

Saxifraga buceras Harry Smith.

Plants cespitose. Shoots many branched, elongate, to 6 cm. Flowering stem short, 0.2-3.5 cm, glandular pilose. Shoot leaves densely imbricate, sometimes subopposite, suberect or subrecurved, narrowly obovate to obovate-oblong, 4-6 × 1.5-2 mm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, chalk glands 5-7, margin cartilaginous denticulate-ciliate proximally, apex obtuse or subacute. Cauline leaves absent or 1-7, remote, similar to shoot leaves, abaxially and marginally glandular pilose. Flower solitary; pedicel short or nearly absent; hypanthium usually black glandular hairy. Sepals ovate to broadly so, 2.5-4 × 2-2.7 mm, glandular pilose abaxially and marginally, chalk gland 1, veins 3-5, partly to fully confluent at apex, apex acute, glabrous. Petals yellow, obovate, 5-10 × 3.5-6.5 mm, ca. 8-veined, base gradually narrowed into a short claw, apex obtuse. Stamens 3-8 mm. Carpels connate proximally; ovary subsuperior, ca. 3.5 mm; styles erect, ca. 2 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

* Rocky hillsides, streamsides, cliff faces; 2800-3600 m. SE Xizang (Nyingchi Xian).

Saxifraga buceras agrees in a large number of important details of leaf and floral morphology with S. elliotii. Such differences as there are involve chiefly the height of the flowering stem (to 3.5 cm in S. buceras and to 0.5 cm in S. elliotii), and possibly also the length of the petals (to 10 mm in S. buceras and to 7 mm in S. elliotii). There may also be a difference in the shape of the fruit, but this is as yet unclear (styles widely divergent in S. buceras, but mature fruits not seen in S. elliotii). Since S. elliotii is known to vary somewhat, it seems justifiable under the circumstances to regard S. buceras as a synonym.