Authors: L.
Rather robust and tufted, to 40cm tall, with a stout rootstock. Leaves palmately lobed to the middle, long-stalked, the main segments further lobed and toothed; stem leaves unstalked, less lobed and in a whorl below the cluster of flowers. Flowers 2-4cm in diameter, borne in an umbel of three to eight, white, often flushed with pink on the outside, each flower with five to six oblong petals; anthers yellow. Mountain meadows and scrub, usually on limestone. Central and southern Europe. A beautiful species often considered difficult to cultivate well and seldom offered by nurseries and generally too large for the alpine house. The species is one of a complex that includes the North America A. villosisma and the Asia A. demissa and A. polyanthes. Some would probably regard them all as subspecies of a single far ranging species.
