It is also native to much of Central Asia, Siberia, China, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea and Japan.

The flowers appear from June onwards (despite the name serotina, meaning "late-flowering"), and are borne at the end of long stalks.

[8][9][10] In Great Britain, G. serotina is an ice age relict, only found on a few inaccessible sites in Snowdonia National Park, Cwm Idwal being one such site, and seems to have developed in isolation since the glacial period.

[11] While their inaccessibility protects the plants to a certain degree against grazing by sheep and trampling by hikers, they are likely to suffer under climate change, and it is believed that G. serotina will be the first plant to become extinct in Britain as a result of global warming.

Plans are therefore being considered to introduce the plant to sites in Scotland, where it may survive in the longer term.