Rhodiola yunnanensis (Franch.) Fu

This species is used medicinally.

Caudex simple or few branched, long, 0.7-2 cm in diam. Caudex leaves scalelike, lanceolate, ovate-triangular, or triangular. Flowering stems solitary or few, erect, 20-100 cm, glabrous. Stem leaves 3-verticillate, rarely opposite, sessile, abaxially pale green, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, oblong, ovate-oblong, broadly ovate, or orbicular, (1-)4-7(-10) × (0.6-)2-4(-8) cm, base rounded-cuneate, margin remotely serrate, sublobate, or rarely entire, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences cymose-paniculate, (3-)5-15 × 2-8 cm; branches verticillate. Flowers numerous, unisexual, unequally 4- or 5-merous in male plants, small. Sepals linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 0.5-1 mm. Petals of male flowers greenish yellow to yellow, spatulate to oblong-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm; those of female flowers purple, linear, ca. 1.2 mm. Stamens 8, shorter than petals. Nectar scales spatulate-quadrate or cuneate-quadrate in male flowers, suborbicular in female ones. Carpels divergent, ovoid, 1.5-3 mm. Follicles stellate, 3-3.2 mm, base connate for ca. 1 mm. Seeds lanceolate, ca. 2 × 0.4 mm, winged. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Aug.

Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.

* Forests on slopes; 1000-4000 m.

Sedum yunnanense Franchet, J. Bot. (Morot) 10: 286. 1896; Rhodiola henryi (Diels) S. H. Fu; R. papillocarpa (Fröderström) S. H. Fu; R. rotundifolia (Fröderström) S. H. Fu; R. sinica (Diels) Jacobsen; Sedum henryi Diels; S. sinicum Diels; S. valerianoides Diels; S. yunnanense var. henryi (Diels) Raymond-Hamet; S. yunnanense var. oxyphyllum Fröderström; S. yunnanense var. papillocarpum Fröderström; S. yunnanense var. rotundifolium Fröderström; S. yunnanense var. valerianoides (Diels) Raymond-Hamet.

Flowering from May to July; fruiting from June to August.

Rhodiola yunnanensis is close relative of Rhodiola forestii, but differs from the latter in its sepals 0.5-1 mm (vs. 3 mm), petals spatulate to oblong-lanceolate (vs. oblong or triangular-ovate).

Rhodiola yunnanensis is occurring in Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan of China.

Caudex simple or few branched, long, 0.7-2 cm in diameter. Caudex leaves scalelike, lanceolate, ovate-triangular, or triangular. Flowering stems solitary or few, erect, 20-100 cm, glabrous. Stem leaves 3-verticillate, rarely opposite, sessile, abaxially pale green, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic, oblong, ovate-oblong, broadly ovate, or orbicular, 4-7 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, base rounded-cuneate, margin remotely serrate, sublobate, or rarely entire, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences cymose-paniculate, 5-15 cm long, 2-8 cm wide; branches verticillate. Flowers numerous, unisexual, unequally 4- or 5-merous in male plants, small. Sepals linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 0.5-1 mm. Petals of male flowers greenish yellow to yellow, spatulate to oblong-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm; those of female flowers purple, linear, ca. 1.2 mm. Stamens 8, shorter than petals. Nectar scales spatulate-quadrate or cuneate-quadrate in male flowers, suborbicular in female ones. Carpels divergent, ovoid, 1.5-3 mm. Follicles stellate, 3-3.2 mm, base connate for ca. 1 mm. Seeds lanceolate, ca. 2 mm long, 0.4 mm wide, winged.

Growing in forests on slopes; 1000-4000 m.

Rhodiola yunnanensis is used medically.