披针叶野决明 pi zhen ye ye jue ming

Thermopsis lanceolata Credit: Harvard University Herbaria

Thermopsis dahurica Czefranova; T. glabra Czefranova; T. lanceolata subsp. glabra (Czefranova) Kurbatski; T. lance­olata var. glabra (Czefranova) Yakovlev; T. lanceolata subsp. sibirica (Czefranova) Kurbatski; T. orientalis Czefranova; T. si­birica Czefranova.

Perennial herbs. Stems erect, 12-40 cm, ridged, creamy pubescent. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm, acuminate; peti­ole 3-8 mm; leaflets linear-oblong or oblanceolate to linear, 2.5-7.5 × 0.5-1.6 cm, appressed puberulent abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Racemes terminal, 6-17 cm; flowers 2 or 3 verticil­late in 2-6 whorls; bracts 8-20 mm, persistent. Calyx 1.5-2.2 cm, gibbous, densely hairy. Corolla yellow, 2.5-2.8 cm, petals with long claw. Ovary densely hairy, with 2-3 mm stipe; ovules 12-20. Legume brown, linear, 5-9 × 0.7-1.2 cm, puberulent, beaked. Seeds 6-14, at central line of valve, black with grayish waxy coating, reniform, 3-5 × 2.5-3.5 mm, smooth. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Oct.

Grasslands, ravines, waste fields. Gansu, ?Hebei, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia].

The name Thermopsis lanceolata, applied in this sense, was pro­posed for conservation with a conserved type by Zhu and Kirkbride (Taxon 55: 1047-1049. 2006). Conservation as proposed was recom­mended (see Brummitt, Taxon 58: 282-283. 2009).