Creeping Sibbaldia

Herbs perennial, woody based. Flowering stems prostrate or ascending, 4–30 cm tall, appressed pilose, or strigose throughout. Radical leaves 3–12 cm including petiole; stipules brown, membranous; petiole pilose; leaf blade 3-foliolate; leaflets shortly petiolulate or subsessile, oblong or obovate, 1–3 × 0.6–1.5 cm, abaxially appressed pilose, adaxially sparsely pilose or sometimes glabrous, base cuneate, margin 3–5-dentate, apex truncate; teeth triangular, rarely ovate and acute; cauline leaves 1 or 2, resembling radical ones but petiole shorter; stipules lanceolate or ovate, sparsely pilose, margin entire. Inflorescence terminal, compact, corymbose, 8–12-flowered. Flowers 4–6 mm in diam. Sepals ovate to triangular-ovate, apex acute; epicalyx segments much shorter than to nearly equaling sepals. Petals yellow, obovate-oblong, slightly or much shorter than sepals, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 5. Style lateral. Achenes glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jul–Aug.

Gansu, Jilin, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [widely distributed in N temperate zone, extending N nearly to arctic circle].

Forests, meadows on mountain slopes, dry mountain slopes, grasslands by lakes, rock crevices; 2400--4000 m.