紫叶堇菜 zi ye jin cai

Herbs perennial. Rhizome procumbent or obliquely ascending, whitish, short, slightly robust, with numerous rootlets. Stems erect, 25-30 cm tall, slender, glabrous, usually simple, leafless in lower part. Basal leaves 1 or 2 or absent, long petiolate; lower cauline leaves shortly petiolate, upper one subsessile or sessile; stipules free, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, small, 3-5 mm, herbaceous, margin remotely dentate; leaf blade dark green adaxially, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 3-7 × 1.5-2.5 cm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially sparsely puberulous or subglabrous, base shallowly cordate or rounded, margin crenate, apex long acuminate. Flowers solitary in upper leaf axils, yellow; pedicels erect, slightly shorter than leaves, slender, 2-bracteolate near middle; bracteoles subulate. Sepals linear, ca. 5 × 0.5-1 mm, apex acute, basal auricles very inconspicuous, apex truncate. Upper and lateral petals oblong, 8-12 × 3-4 mm, lateral ones inside not barbate, anterior one triangular-obovate, ca. 1.3 cm (spur included), base dark yellow; spur cylindric, 5-6 mm, 1.5-2 mm in diam.; spur of anterior stamens cylindric, 2-2.5 mm, slender. Ovary smooth, glabrous; styles slightly geniculate at base, conspicuously thickened upward, 2-lobed in upper half, lobes ovate, apex acute. Capsule ellipsoid, ca. 6 mm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

● Mountain forests, forest margins, grassy slopes, moist rock crevices; 1500-3500 m. W Hubei, Sichuan.