Botanical name: Paraquilegia microphylla Family: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family)
Synonyms: Isopyrum grandiflorum var. microphyllum
Himalayan Spurless Columbine is a very distinctive small plant growing in rock crevices, often forming large clumps. It sports delicate, somewhat pendulous white, blue or lilac flowers and rather glaucous ferny leaves. Flowers are borne singly, cup-shaped, 2-3.5 cm acrossm with ovate petals. Flowers are borne in slender leafless stems 4-6 cm long. Bracts are 2, linear-lanceshaped. Flowers vary a lot in size and color. West Himalayan forms have small white flowers while the East Himalayan forms have large lilac flowers. Leaves grow all at the base, long-stalked, three-forked, with leaflets 1-2 cm across which are further divided into into deeply lobed segments. Rootstock is often clustered and covered with bases of old leaf-stalks. Seed-pods are 5-10 mm long, with persistent styles. Himalayan Spurless Columbine is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to SW China, C & N Asia, at altitudes of 3400-4900 m. Flowering: June-July.
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The flower labeled Himalayan Spurless Columbine is ...