紫云英 zi yun ying

Astragalus lotoides Pallas; A. sinicus var. macrocalyx Ulbrich.

Plants annual or short-lived perennial, sparsely covered with appressed white hairs 0.1-0.6 mm. Stems intricately branched, ascending to nearly erect or prostrate to creeping, with long internodes, up to 30 cm, sparsely hairy to subgla­brous, rooting at nodes. Leaves 2.5-10 cm; stipules 2-3 mm, free, ciliate; petiole much shorter than to as long as rest of leaf, like rachis sparsely hairy; leaflets in 3-5 pairs, obovate to ob­cordate, 5-17 × 3-13 mm, abaxially sparsely appressed hairy, adaxially glabrous or with a few scattered hairs, apex widely rounded to distinctly emarginate. Racemes umbellate, 4-10-flowered; peduncle erect, 2.5-25 cm, sparsely hairy; bracts 0.3-1 mm, ciliate. Calyx 3-5 mm, loosely to rather densely or more rarely scarcely covered with appressed, wide and flattened, white hairs 0.1-0.3 mm; teeth 1-2(-3) mm. Petals white, pink, light red, or purple, rarely creamy yellow or yellow; standard ovate, 9-14 × 5-8 mm, apex incised; wings 7-11 mm; keel 9-14 mm. Legumes with a stipe 2-3 mm, 12-20 mm, 2.5-3.5 mm high and wide, with a slender beak up to 5 mm; valves thin, blackish, loosely hairy.

Wet places, riversides, as a weed in rice fields, widespread in E Asia; 100-3000 m. Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, He­bei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhe­jiang [Japan].