Snow Lotus

Snow Lotus

　　The main local specialties of Qamdo include pangxiang, caterpillar fungus, fritillaria, anemarrhena, snow lotus, walnuts, Tibetan knife-patterned flower fish, bian fish, and plateau livestock products. (Qamdo)

Snow lotus is distributed in the cold high-altitude mountainous regions of northwestern China. It is a highly therapeutic medicinal plant. Due to over-harvesting, low seed germination rates, difficult propagation, and slow growth, if effective protective measures are not taken, it faces the risk of extinction.

Morphological Characteristics

A perennial herb, 15–25 (–35) cm tall; rhizome thick, dark brown, with numerous brownish dead leaf sheath fibers at the base; stem solitary, erect, hollow, 2–4 cm in diameter, glabrous. Leaves dense, nearly leathery, green, oblong or ovate-oblong, approximately 14 cm long and 2–4 cm wide, obtuse or slightly acute at the apex, decurrent at the base, margins with sparse small serrations, glandular-pilose, uppermost bract leaves 13–17, membranous and translucent, pale yellow, margins with neat sparse teeth, slightly glandular-pilose, obtuse-acuminate at the apex, contracted at the base, often exceeding the inflorescence by twice. Capitula 10–30, aggregated at the stem apex forming a spherical shape; involucre hemispherical, with 3–4 layers of nearly membranous, lanceolate, acute phyllaries with black margins and pilose edges; florets purple, approximately 14 mm long. Achenes oblong, with longitudinal ribs; pappus two-layered, outer layer short and scabrid, inner layer long and feathery.

Characteristics

Snow lotus usually grows below the snow line of high mountains. The climate is changeable, with fluctuating temperatures, alternating rain and snow, the highest monthly average temperature being 3–5°C, the lowest monthly average temperature –19 to –21°C, annual precipitation about 800 mm, and a frost-free period of only around 50 days. The soil is mainly alpine meadow soil, with organic matter content of 8.5–11% and nitrogen content of 4.5–10%. Due to harsh environmental conditions, most plants struggle to grow, and only a few cold-resistant and low-temperature-tolerant species such as sedges (Carex spp.), kobresias (Kobresia spp.), and various alpine perennial herbs coexist. Under these extreme high-mountain conditions, snow lotus grows slowly and takes at least 4–5 years to flower and fruit. However, due to its short growing season, it can rapidly germinate, grow, flower, and fruit in a brief period. Flowering occurs in July, and fruiting in August.

Conservation Value

Snow lotus is a rare and valuable medicinal plant of high-altitude regions, making the conservation of its germplasm resources of great significance both scientifically and medicinally.