红虎耳草 hong hu er cao

Hirculus sanguineus (Franchet) Losinskaja.

Herbs perennial, 5-15 cm tall. Stem purple, densely purple glandular hairy. Basal leaves aggregated into a rosette, spatulate to subspatulate, 5.5-13 × 1.5-3 mm, carnose, both surfaces glabrous, margin cartilaginous setose-ciliate, apex deflexed, obtuse. Cauline leaves remote, oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 3.5-11 × 2-2.5 mm, leathery, adaxially and marginally purple-brown glandular hairy, apex obtuse. Cyme 2.7-6.5 cm, 3-23-flowered; branches slender, 2.5-6 cm, 1-3-flowered; pedicels 0.6-1.7 cm, densely purple-brown glandular hairy. Sepals spreading, then reflexed, ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-5.7 × 1.5-2.1 mm, purple-brown glandular hairy abaxially, adaxially distally, and marginally, veins 5-7, confluent into a verruca at apex, apex subobtuse or acute. Petals adaxially pale yellow, proximally purple spotted, abaxially red, or red on both surfaces, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 5-7.3 × 2-2.3 mm, 2-callose, 3-veined, base rounded, with a claw 1.3-1.8 mm, apex acute. Stamens ca. 4.5 mm. Ovary subsuperior, broadly ovoid to subellipsoid, ca. 2 mm; styles ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

* Rocky hillside meadows, limestone crevices; 3300-4500 m. SE Qinghai (Jigzhi Xian), W Sichuan, S Xizang (Sa'gya Xian, Xigazê Xian), NW Yunnan (Zhongdian Xian).