Authors: Miers
Trechonaetes laciniata). Colony-forming from a deep long main root with rhizomatous branches, the whole plant usually a few centimetres high, but the foliage sometimes ascending to 15-20cm. Leaves rosetted, obtuse, glabrous, 22.5-26 by 1.5-3cm, pinnatisect with the ovate or oblong lobes toothed and mucronate; petioles, often longer than the blades, sparsely hairy. Flowers clustered in the rosette centres, shallowly cup to saucer-shaped 1.5-2cm deep and as wide or more with rather blunt, rounded lobes, almost black in the centre with a narrow white to greenish-white edging around the petal lobes. Fruits orange or tomato-red. Argentina and Chile, the central cordilleras, in gravelly and sandy places or scree, 2000-3750m. Hardly colourful, and it would benefit from neater leafage, but none the less a unique, surprising and striking plant in flower at close-quarters. [Pl.233]
