
Pomatosace

Pomatosace filicula is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, endemic to the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau in China.
Description.
"Pomatosace filicula" is a biennial plant that grows from rosettes of basal leaves, each long and wide and divided into lobes along its length; the leaves may be reminiscent of a fern, providing the species' epithet, ' (diminutive of Latin ', "fern"). The flowers are borne in umbels of 3–12 flowers on a stalk tall. Each flower is white, with five petals fused into a tube for around . Seeds are produced in a capsule, which is approximately wide.
Distribution and ecology.
"Pomatosace filicula" is only found in the north-eastern part of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Xizang (Tibet) and Qinghai. It grows in a variety of habitats, including alpine meadows and sand flats along rivers, at altitudes of . It flowers from May to June, and fruits from June to August. It is thought to have evolved to inhabit the open ground in front of the burrows of plateau pikas ("Ochotona curzoniae") and other ground-dwelling mammals.
Taxonomy.
"Pomatosace filicula" is the only species in the genus "Pomatosace", as described by Karl Maximovich in 1881. More recent molecular phylogenetic data have shown, however, that "Pomatosace" is nested within "Androsace", meaning that some taxonomic change is required to maintain monophyletic genera – either sinking "Pomatosace" into "Androsace" or splitting "Androsace" into a number of genera.