匙萼龙胆 chi e long dan

Perennials 5-7 cm tall. Stolons to 10 cm, much branched. Stems erect, simple, densely purple papillate. Leaves apically crowded into a rosette; petiole 3-7 mm, slender, abaxially ciliolate and papillate; leaf blade oblong, spatulate, or rarely ovate, 5-7 × 2-4 mm, adaxially sometimes papillate, abaxially 1-veined, base contracted into a tongue, purple-ciliolate, apex obtuse to rounded. Flowers solitary or to 3 and crowded. Calyx tubular; tube outside ± purple papillate; lobes orbicular-spatulate, 5-7 mm, herbaceous, base contracted into a tongue, purple ciliolate, apex rounded, midvein prominent. Corolla blue, unspotted, tubular, 4.5-5.5 cm; lobes broadly ovate, 5-7 mm, margin entire or denticulate, apex acute; plicae broadly ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm, margin denticulate, apex obtuse to rounded. Stamens inserted just below middle of corolla tube; filaments 1.8-2.5 cm, unequal; anthers ellipsoid, 1.5-2.5 mm. Style 8-10 mm; stigma lobes linear. Capsules ellipsoid, 1.8-2 cm; gynophore to 3 cm. Seeds light brown, ellipsoid to subglobose, 0.8-1 mm; seed coat with spongy complex pits. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

* Grassland slopes; 3000-4300 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.