Authors: Cambess.
Rhizomatous to 15cm tall or occasionally more. Basal leaves long-stalked, trilobed, with wedge-shaped to oval, deeply lobed and sharply toothed segments, rather shiny green above, sometimes flushed with purple beneath; stem leaves similar but unstalked or short-stalked. Flowers usually solitary, 4-7cm wide, white, generally flushed with pink or violet on the outside, with five oval petals. Achenes densely woolly. Rocks, moraines, cliffs and open slopes, 2700-4300m. Eastern Afghanistan eastwards through the Himalaya to southwestern China. Rare in cultivation and generally grown in the alpine house, however, it should cope with a sunny scree outdoors. This species is adapted to regions of high summer rainfall and does not require a summer dry period. A. rupicola is very variable in flower size and the degree of division of the leaf segments. The finest forms are to be found in the mountains of southwestern China.
