Parrya exscapa C. A. Meyer in Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 3: 28. 1831; Neuroloma exscapum (C. A. Meyer) Steudel.
Plants 5-10 cm tall, cespitose; caudex thick, few branched, densely covered with petiolar remains of previous years. Petiole broadened at base, glabrous, 0.5-1.5 cm; leaf blade orbicular, obovate, or spatulate, rarely oblanceolate, 1-3 × 0.6-1.5 cm, glabrous or rarely sparsely pubescent at margin with exclusively simple trichomes, base rounded or cuneate, margin obtusely dentate or repand, apex rounded or subacute. Flowers 1-4 per rosette, on solitary pedicels from center of rosette. Fruiting pedicels erect-ascending, glabrous, 1-2.5 cm. Sepals ob-long, 7-9 × 1.5-2 mm, glabrous, white or sometimes purple margined. Petals obovate, 1.4-2 cm × 6-10 mm, apex rounded; claw 7-9 mm. Filaments white, median pairs 6-8 mm, lateral pair 3.5-4.5 mm; anthers linear, 2.5-3 mm. Ovules 18-30 per ovary. Fruit linear to linear-lanceolate, 4-9 cm × 5-7 mm, margin straight or undulate. Seeds oblong, 2.7-3.5 × 1.5-2 mm, biseriate, flattened, wingless or narrowly margined proximally. Fl. and Fr. Jul-Sep.
Mountain slopes. N Xinjiang (Altay Shan) [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].
Almost all of the specimens identified in Chinese herbaria as Leiospora exscapa, as well as the account in FRPS (as Parrya exscapa), are based on misidentified plants of L. pamirica. True L. exscapa is very rare in China and appears to be restricted to Altay Shan in N Xinjiang. It is readily distinguished from L. pamirica by being totally glabrous, or exclusively with simple trichomes, and by having oblong and wingless (vs. orbicular and broadly winged) seeds. Records of L. exscapa in the floras of India and Pakistan are also based on misidentified plants of L. pamirica.
