Altai buttercup

Family Ranunculaceae. Siberia, Central Asia, the Far East, Mongolia. On rocks, stony slopes, near glaciers and snowfields, on alpine meadows, in moss-lichen and scree-lichen tundras.

Rhizomes short, black-brown, thickened, with numerous cord-like rootlets. Stems 3-18(30) cm tall, erect, simple; at the base with brown membranous sheaths of withered leaves, in the upper part pubescent with dark brown hairs. Basal leaves numerous, on long petioles, their blades rounded-ovate, broadly cuneate at the base, with 5-7 obtuse teeth near the top, glabrous. Stem leaves 1-2 in number, sessile, blades deeply divided into oblong or linear-oblong entire-margined lobes. Flowers solitary (rarely 2) at the stem apex, 2.2-3.7 cm in diameter, golden-yellow. Sepals ovate, concave, 1.5 times shorter than the petals, pubescent with dark brown hairs. Petals 5-10 in number, broadly obovate, mostly emarginate at the apex. Fruiting heads broadly ovoid. Receptacle brown-hairy. Achenes glabrous, obliquely ovoid, 2.5-3 mm long, with a straight beak, bent at the tip, about 1 mm long.