长苞荆芥 chang bao jing jie

Glechoma longibracteata (Bentham) Kuntze.

Plants perennial. Stems 9-12 cm, 1-1.5 mm in diam., slender, diffuse; lower internodes long, sparsely short hairy, minutely white glandular, upper minutely long hairy and white. Leaves long petiolate, sessile basally; leaf blade obovate-cuneate or ovate-rhombic to ovate, or linear-lanceolate, scalelike basally, 0.8-1.5 cm × 5-12 mm, ± softly gray tomentose, base cuneate or truncate-cuneate, margin coarsely crenate, sometimes 3-lobed, apex obtuse. Inflorescences globose, rarely slightly elongated, 1.5-3(-3.5) cm; bracts purplish, linear, longer than flowers, 1.7-1.9 × 0.5-0.6 mm, minutely glandular hairy, margin densely ciliate. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm. Calyx straight, narrowly obconical, 7-8 × 1.6-2.5 mm, throat very oblique; teeth narrow, lanceolate-triangular, apex acuminate, posterior teeth slightly shorter, their margin and tube with long, dense, thin, simple hairs and scattered brown glands, anterior teeth slightly longer than calyx tube. Corolla blue-violet, 1.5-1.8 cm, slightly pubescent; tube thin, curved, 0.9-1.1 cm, gradually dilated apically, exserted part 1/3 as long as tube; upper lip concave; lower lip white with blue spots on middle, larger, middle lobe wide, base short clawed, margin remotely crenate, apex broadly emarginate, lateral lobes obovate. Fl. Jul-Aug.

Stony or gravelly alpine slopes; 4900-5300 m. Xinjiang, Xizang [India, Tajikistan]

An easily recognized high alpine scree plant.