革叶龙胆 ge ye long dan

Annuals 3-7 cm tall. Stems erect, lower half simple and leafless, upper half much branched with short internodes, and apically with many leaves and flowering branches crowded into a capitulum, angled, densely puberulent on angles. Leaves overlapping, crowded, decreasing in size toward stem apex; petiole tube 0.5-1 mm; leaf blade recurved, folded, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 6-9 × 1.5-2.5 mm, subleathery, rigid, glossy, base narrowed, margin of lower leaf blades cartilaginous, that of upper blades membranous, apex acute and cuspidate, midvein distinct. Flowers many, subsessile. Calyx tubular, 6-6.5 mm, tube membranous; lobes ovate to triangular, 2.5-3.5 mm, about as long as tube, margin ciliolate with basal half membranous and apical half cartilaginous, apex acute and cuspidate, midvein prominent. Corolla pale blue, tubular, 8-9 mm; lobes 1-1.5 mm, ovate, margin entire, apex obtuse; plicae ovate, 0.7-1 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube, equal; filaments 1.5-2 mm; anthers 0.9-1.1 mm, ellipsoid. Style 1-1.2 mm; stigma lobes narrowly oblong. Capsules narrowly obovoid, 5.5-6 mm; gynophore 1-1.5 mm, stout. Seeds light brown, ellipsoid, 0.7-0.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Feb.

* Dry slopes; ca. 2700 m. NE Yunnan.