General: Perennial herb from fibrous-rooted stem-base; stems erect, 2-14 cm tall in flower, to 23 cm in fruit, smooth.
Leaves: All basal, circular to kidney-shaped, deeply palmately 3- to 5-lobed, the edges overlapping somewhat, 1-4 cm long, 1.5-7 cm wide, the lobes again lobed, the ultimate segments elliptic or oblong, margins toothed, tips rounded and bearing minute projecting vein tips, the stalks to 15 cm long; stem leaves none to 2, scale-like.
Flowers: Inflorescence a solitary terminal flower; flower stalks to 14 cm long; receptacle smooth; petals 11 to 15, distinct, yellow, oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, 8-12 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, long-clawed, nectary on upper surface, the nectary scale divided and V-shaped; sepals 5, spreading, persistent, greenish-yellow, 7-11 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, smooth; stamens (50) 75-125; pistils (30) 70-100.
Fruits: Achenes, numerous in a globe-shaped head 7-8 mm long, 9-10 mm wide, the achenes elliptic, 2.4-4.6 mm long, 1.2-2.2 mm wide, smooth, membranous, margins and faces strongly veined; beaks persistent, thread-like, 1-1.8 mm long, hooked at tip.
Wet to moist snowbeds, streambanks, ledges, gullies, scree slopes and heath in the subalpine and alpine zones; common in NW BC (including the Queen Charlotte Islands), infrequent in SW BC, rare east of Coast Mountains; N to AK and S to WA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
