4. Paraquilegia Drummond & Hutchinson in Kew Bull. Misc. Inf. 1920:156. 1920. Shipchinskii in Komarov, Fl. URSS. 7:75.1937; Ulbr. in Notizbl. Bot. Garten Berlin, 9:209.1925; Tamura in Kitamura, Fl. Afghan. 129.1960; Tamura & Lauener in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 28:273.1968; Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 268. 1972; Qureshi & Chaudhri, Pak. Syst. 4(1-2):7. 1988.
HARALD RIEDL and YASIN J. NASIR
Naturhistorisches Museum, Botanische Abteilung, Wien, Austria.
and
National Herbarium, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Perennial, densely caespitose herb with single flowers on simple stems. Basal leaves simple or 2-3-ternate. Sepals 5, petaloid, rugose. Petals 5, sessile or with a very short stipe, flat or concave near base. Stamens numerous. Fruit consisting of 2-10 free follicles.
Tamura and Lauener (op.cit.) recognise 5 related species with a distribution ranging from Altai, Pamir and Tien Shan southwards to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Himalaya, Tibet and S.W. China. The taxonomy of this genus is rather confused, as only a few collections are known and delimitation is far from clear. Represented by 1 species in Pakistan.
