Ugam bergenia

Family Saxifragaceae. A very rare, narrowly localized relict species of the Western Tien Shan. Its collecting and occurrence site is the Ugam Range.

The plants were first found in the wild and described in the 1950s by V. N. Pavlov, who named the species after the location of the plants. Its habitat is the subalpine belt. It grows in rock crevices, on the sides of a steep hollow filled with avalanche snow, at an altitude of 2800 m above sea level. A single locality with a small number of individuals is known.

Leaves large, up to 15 cm long and up to 13 cm wide, elliptic or obovate, leathery, glossy, gathered in a rosette. Leaf margins are doubly serrate, without cilia. Flower stems up to 30 cm tall, succulent, usually with a bract. Inflorescence dense, consisting of coiled glandular-hairy branches. Flowers five-parted, 1.4–1.8 cm long, with a bright raspberry-pink corolla. Flowers in July–August, fruiting in August. Reproduction by seeds and vegetatively — by pieces of rhizome carried away by avalanches.