Authors: Tausch
The northernmost of the four related Arthritica subsection of section Auricula, and the most robust, distinguished from the others by the egg-shaped calyx with broad blunt sepal-lobes, and the fringe of glandular hairs to the sharp, dark green leathery leaves (also in P. wulfeniana). Flowers with deeply notched petal lobes, 1.5-4cm across, pinkish-red fading to lilac, with a white eye, in umbels of one to four, rarely more, on stems from 5-20cm high. April (May-June in the wild). North-eastern Austria, especially the mountains west of Vienna, calcareous grassland at about 2000m., occasionally rocks and cliffs at lower altitudes. A good rock-garden plant, particularly suitable for a trough and tufa where it can be long-lived, but tends to flower best when young. The cultivar 'Murray-Lyon' is the most desirable.
