Two-flowered cinquefoil

Family Rosaceae. Native range: Siberia, Central Asia, Chukotka, the Himalayas, Tibet, N. America. In the high-mountain belt, on stony screes, on rocks, in tundras.

Cushion-forming subshrub 3-8 cm high, clothed at the base with remnants of petioles and dead leaves. Stems numerous, woody in the lower part, leafless, slightly exceeding the basal leaves, like the whole plant, appressed-hairy. Segments of the leaflets entire, 6-12 mm long, 1-2 mm wide. Stipules fused with the petiole for a considerable length, with free lanceolate-linear auricles. Flowers 12-17 mm in diam., numbering 1-3 (4). Calyx 1.5-2 times shorter than the corolla; outer oblong-elliptic sepals slightly shorter than the inner ovate ones. Achenes usually with long hairs at the base, style almost apical, filiform, uniformly thin.