4. Potentilla bifurca Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 497. 1753.
二裂委陵菜 er lie wei ling cai
Herbs perennial or low subshrubs, 5–20 cm tall, with partly subterranean stems. Aerial stems usually ascending or prostrate, together with petioles and pedicels ± densely or rarely sparsely covered throughout with spreading or often erect-spreading, rarely ± laxly appressed, rigid hairs. Leaves 3–8 cm including petiole; stipules of lower leaves brown, membranous, abaxially hirtellous, rarely glabrescent, those of upper leaves ovate-elliptic, herbaceous, margin usually entire, rarely serrate; leaf blade pinnate with 3–8 pairs of leaflets; leaflets opposite, rarely alternate, sessile, elliptic or obovate, 0.5–1.5 cm × 4–8 mm, appressed pilose, base cuneate or broadly so, decurrent and adnate to rachis in distal 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets, apex entire, 2- or 3-fid. Inflorescence terminal, laxly corymbose or cymose, or a solitary flower. Flowers 0.7–1.5 cm in diam. Sepals ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments elliptic, shorter than or nearly equaling sepals, sparsely pilose abaxially, apex obtuse or acute. Petals yellow, obovate, slightly longer than sepals, apex rounded. Ovary adaxially pilose; style lateral, thickened and clavate at apex, slightly constricted under dilated stigma. Achenes smooth. Fl. and fr. May–Oct.
Sparse forests, grassy mountain slopes, loess slopes, sandy river banks, field and road banks, field margins, steppe meadows, semidry desert grasslands, sandy coasts; 400--4000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Korea, Mongolia, Russia; SW Asia, C and E Europe].
