多花乌头 duo hua wu tou

Rhizome terete, branched. Stem 5--19 cm. Leaves all basal; petiole 2.5--14.5 cm, slender, glabrous, base sheathed; leaf blade orbicular-cordate or reniform, 1--3 × 2--4 cm, palmately or pedately 3--5-parted; lobes obovate-cuneate, 2- or 3-lobed; ultimate lobes ovate or oblong, apex acute or mucronate. Scapes 1--4, erect, 6.5--14 cm tall, distally retrorse pubescent; bracts 2, stalked, similar to leaves but smaller, at distal part of pedicels. Flower solitary, terminal. Sepals blue-purple, glabrous or abaxially sparsely pubescent; lower sepals broadly obovate, or suborbicular, ca. 2 × 2 cm; upper sepal navicular, shortly beaked, ca. 3 × 0.9--1.2 cm from base to beak. Petals ca. 2 cm, glabrous; claw slender; limb ca. 3 mm; lip very short, entire or slightly concave; spur narrowly cylindric. Stamens distally puberulous or glabrous; filaments broadly lanceolate. Carpels 6--8, sparsely pubescent. Fl. Jul--Oct.

Wet places on slopes, grassy slopes; 4300--5100 m. SE Xizang [Bhutan; NE India (Assam)].

This species belongs to Aconitum sect. Fletcherum Tamura characterized by the upper sepal navicular; petaline lip very short; spur narrowly cylindric, almost degenerated, and carpels 6–8.