Authors: L.  

Botanical Description

The smallest of the European section Auricula, a mat-forming plant with the aspect of many Himalayan Minutissimae. Leaves wedge-shaped, 5-30mm long and 3-10mm long, deep, shining green, coriaceous, strongly toothed at the squared-off apex, merging into a short petiole. Flowers borne in the mat, bright pink with a white eye, sometimes pure white, 1.5-3cm across, the petals deeply notched, almost V-shaped, singly or in pairs on stems up to 4cm tall. From the eastern Alps to the Tatra, Carpathians, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldavia in bare areas, late snow-lie, consolidated scree, normally on acid soils at 1200-3000m. Best in a rock crevice or a sink. Does not flower freely in cultivation, although some of its look-alike hybrids with P. hirsuta (P. x forsteri f. bilekii) will do so.

a, P. hirsuta; b, P. integrifolia; c, P. minima; d, P. palinuri;