Rhodiola tibetica - Tibetan Roseroot

Tibetan Roseroot is a perennial herb found growing on rocks and hilly slopes in the Himalayas. Flowering stems are many on each rhizome, simple, erect, hairless, old flowering stems persistent, 7-25 cm long, 1.5-2 mm wide. Stem leaves are alternate, stalkless, entire, blunt, hairless, oblong, oblong-ovate, 0.5-1.3 cm long, 2-4 mm wide. Flowers are borne in many-flowered, compound cyme at the top of stems. Bracts are similar to the stem leaves. Flowers are unisexual, 4-5 merous, stalk 1-3 mm long. Sepals are fused at the base, entire, blunt, linear-lanceshaped 2-3 x 0.5-1 mm in male; 3.4-4.2 x 0.5-1 mm in female. Petals are hairless, blunt, oblong, 2-4 x 0.7-1.5 mm in male; 2.3-3.2 x 0.7-1.5 mm in female. Stamens 8-10, longer than the petals, in two whorls. Pistillodes are 1.2-3 x 0.3-1 mm in male. Tibetan Roseroot grows at altitudes of 3000-4800 m in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to NE India and China. Flowering: June-August.