异枝虎耳草 yi zhi hu er cao

Herbs perennial, cespitose, 2.5-18.5 cm tall. Stem simple, sparsely brown crisped glandular villous, with axillary leaf buds. Basal leaves caducous; petiole 4-7 mm, margin crisped glandular villous; leaf blade subelliptic to oblong, 3-3.5 × 1-1.1 mm, subcarnose, glabrous, apex subacute. Cauline leaves sessile, linear, 0.9-1.4 cm × 1-2 mm, subcarnose, both surfaces glabrous, margin crisped glandular villous at base. Flower solitary or cyme 2- or 3-flowered; pedicels 6-2.2 cm, dark brown glandular hairy. Sepals erect, subelliptic to broadly ovate, 3-4.1 × 2-3.1 mm, subcarnose, both surfaces glabrous, veins 3-5, not confluent at apex, margin dark brown glandular ciliate, apex obtuse or retuse. Petals yellow, elliptic, 5.5-8.2 × 3-5 mm, (4-)6-callose near base, (3-)5-7-veined, base contracted into a claw 0.2-0.5 mm, apex retuse. Stamens 3.6-5 mm. Ovary subsuperior, broadly ovoid, 3-3.5 mm; styles 1-1.5 mm; stigma large. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Forests, alpine scrub meadows, rock crevices; 3500-4200 m. SE Xizang [N Myanmar].

Saxifraga heteroclada var. aurantia is supposed to differ from var. heteroclada in its more numerous cauline leaves, glabrous pedicels, sepals with glandular margin, and larger (to 9 × 5 mm), orange petals. It seems from the above description that not all these characters are correlated, and it remains to be seen whether the two varieties can be maintained. Both taxa were described from N Myanmar.