Potentilla acaulis Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 500. 1753.
星毛委陵菜 xing mao wei ling cai
Potentilla subacaulis Linnaeus.
Herbs perennial, grayish green. Roots terete, much branched. Flowering stems tufted, 2–15 cm tall, together with petioles densely stellate hairy and spreading hirtellous. Radical leaves 15–70 cm including petiole; stipules tinged brown, membranous, stellate hairy and spreading hirtellous; leaf blade 3-foliolate; leaflets usually shortly petiolulate or subsessile, grayish green on both surfaces, obovate-elliptic or rhombic-obovate, 0.8–3 × 0.4–1.5 cm, both surfaces densely stellate hairy and spreading hirtellous, abaxially more densely so on veins, base cuneate, margin obtusely 4–6-serrate on each side, apex obtuse; cauline leaves 1–3; stipules grayish green, linear or linear-lanceolate, herbaceous, abaxially stellate hairy; petiole very short; leaflets resembling those of radical leaves. Inflorescence terminal, cymose, 1–5-flowered. Flowers ca. 1.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 1–2 cm, densely stellate hairy and pilose. Sepals triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments elliptic, abaxially densely stellate hairy and pilose, apex obtuse, rarely 2-fid. Petals yellow, obovate, about 2 × as long as sepals, apex emarginate or obtuse. Style subterminal, base papillate; stigma slightly dilated. Achenes subreniform, ca. 1 mm in diam., inconspicuously rugose. Fl. and fr. Apr–Aug.
Meadows on mountain slopes, loess slopes, gravelly slopes; 600--3000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].