Trachydium roylei Lindl.

This species has reputed medicinal value (in Xizang).

A plant of the inner high ranges from 2500 to 4500 m.

Plants, 4–10 cm, usually acaulescent. Taproots stout, to 10 cm. Leaves petiolate; blade oblong-lanceolate in outline, 2–3-pinnate; primary pinnae 4–6 pairs, pinnatifid; ultimate segments linear-lanceolate, 1–3 × 0.5–1 mm. Umbels 4–8 cm across; bracts 3–5, oblanceolate to obovate, 1–2-pinnate, to 2 cm; rays 5–10, 2–7 cm, unequal; bracteoles 6–10, similar to bracts, longer than flowers. Calyx teeth obsolete. Petals white, base shortly clawed. Styles about equaling stylopodium, spreading-ascending. Fruit broadly ovoid, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, scattered-tuberculate; vittae solitary in each furrow, 2 on commissure. Seed face slightly concave. Carpophore undivided. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct.

Plants erect to decumbent. Tap root long. Stem abbreviated, up to 5 cm long. Leaves radical, 2-3-pinnate; segments linear. Umbels sessile or peduncu¬late. Occasionally rays forming secondary umbels. Involucre of many pinnate, leaf-like bracts. Rays numerous, up to 15 cm long. Involucel of many pinnate bractlets, longer than the flowering umbellet. Calyx teeth obsolete. Stylopodium conical, black in fruit; styles 1 mm long, divaricate. Fruit ovate, 5 mm long, 3 mm broad; fruit wall verruculose; ridges prominent; furrows 1-vittate. Albumen sulcate.

W Sichuan, E and SW Xizang [NW India, Kashmir, Pakistan].

Distribution: Himalayas in India and W. Pakistan.

Alpine grasslands, stony slopes; 3000–5600 m.