Authors: Phil.
Tufted perennial 8-12cm high in bloom, from a thickened rhizome bearing deeply delving anchor roots and shorter tuber-like ones. Leaves glaucous, glabrous, dissected, reminiscent of Dicentra peregrina, to 7cm across, barely developed at flowering time. Flowering stems violet-purple, bearing one to several blooms. Each flower is 4cm or more in diameter, composed of five white, purple-stained sepals and ten to twenty longer and narrower white petals, spring in the wild. Flowers entirely blush pink are known. Chile and Argentina, the southern lake district and northern Andean Patagonia, in bare, often mobile scree, always associated with the snow melt zone at the limit of vegetation at 1500-2300m. A choice species equal in charm to the best of the Australasian scree species. Difficult to cultivate.
