小蓝雪花 xiao lan xue hua

Shrubs, deciduous, 30--150 cm tall. Stems many-branched; branches without ringlike scars, pith reduced; branchlets densely strigose; hairs white or pale lemon yellow, abruptly attenuate from ellipsoid base, sometimes less than 1 mm, occasionally mixed with 3--6-rayed stellate hairs. Bud scales scalelike. Leaf blade obovate, spatulate, or subrhombic, 2--3 X (0.6--)0.8--1.6 cm, base attenuate, apex obtuse, rounded, or rarely acute or mucronate; abaxially densely strigose, rarely only strigose along midrib; adaxially glabrous or sparsely strigose, sometimes strigose-hirsute. Inflorescences terminal and (5--)7--13(--16)-flowered or axillary and 1--9-flowered; bracts oblong-ovate, 4--5 X ca. 2.5 mm, apex acute; bractlets ovate to oblong-ovate, 4.5--5 X 1.5--2 mm, apex acuminate. Calyx 6.5--9 X ca. 1.5 mm; lobes ca. 1.5 mm, with slender appressed hairs along ribs of exposed part or rarely mixed with stellate hairs. Corolla 1.5--1.7(--1.9) cm, tube purple; lobes blue, obdeltate, 6--7 X 4--5 mm, apex emarginate and filiformly mucronate. Anthers blue to purple, 1.4--1.6(--2) mm. Ovary green, ovoid. Style branches exserted. Capsules ovoid, (2--)6.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Oct, fr. Jun-Nov.

* Valleys; 1000--4800 m. S Gansu, W Sichuan, E and S Xizang, N Yunnan