叉枝唐松草 cha zhi tang song cao

Thalictrum radiatum Royle; T. rupestre Madden ex Lecoyer.

Plants 18--30 cm tall, glabrous. Stems often branched, erect, smooth. Leaves both basal and cauline; petiole 5.5--7 cm; leaf blade 2- or 3-ternate, 4.5--12 cm; petiolule 3--18 mm; leaflet blade broadly obovate, 1.5--2.5 × 1.3--2.3 cm, papery, both surfaces pubescent, base cuneate, rounded, or subcordate, margin slightly 3-lobed; lobes crenate, apex obtuse; veins raised. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, monochasial, few flowered. Sepals early deciduous, greenish white, ovate-elliptic, ca. 3.5 mm. Stamens 25--70; filament weakly dilated distally to filiform, 3--4 mm; anther yellow-white, ca. 1 mm, apex mucronate. Carpels 10--40; style circinate; stigma inconspicuous. Achenes sessile; body narrowly ovoid, ca. 2.5 mm; veins ca. 8, stout. Fl. Aug--Sep.

Slopes or meadows in forests; 2300--2500 m. S Xizang (Nyalam Xian), W Yunnan (Fengqing Xian) [?Bhutan, N India, Nepal, Sikkim].

This species is similar to Thalictrum leve, but differs in having unevenly branched and few-flowered inflorescences and achenes many per flower.