阿赖山黄耆 a lai shan huang qi

Astragalus saratagius var. minutiflorus S. B. Ho.

Plants 15-35 cm tall, vegetative parts covered with mostly medifixed, appressed, white hairs 0.5-1 mm. Stems several, branched at base, loosely to rather densely hairy. Leaves 1.5-4.5 cm; stipules 1.5-3 mm, shortly or up to 2/3 connate behind stem, sparsely to loosely hairy, margins partly with strongly asymmetrically bifurcate hairs; petiole 0.3-1 cm, like slender rachis rather densely hairy; leaflets in 6-8(-10) pairs, elliptic to ovate, 2-5(-7) × 0.8-3(-4) mm, both surfaces rather densely hairy. Racemes short, ovoid to capitate, densely 5-15(-22)-flowered; peduncle 2.4-10 cm, loosely to rather densely white hairy; bracts 1.5-3 mm, with white and sometimes a few black hairs, margins with strongly asymmetrically bifurcate to basi­fixed hairs. Calyx at anthesis tubular, 9-10 mm, at length slightly inflated but ruptured by legume, loosely to rather densely covered with subappressed white and distinctly shorter black hairs, sometimes glabrescent; teeth 1-1.5 mm. Petals violet, keel with a dark violet tip; standard obovate, 18-20(-24) × 6-7 mm, slightly constricted below middle, apex narrowly retuse; wings 15-20 mm, limbs deeply bilobed; keel 12.5-16 mm. Legumes sessile, 7-11 mm, ca. 3 mm high and ca. 2 mm wide, with a curved beak 1.5-2 mm; valves densely covered with subappressed to slightly ascending, subbasifixed to basi­fixed, white hairs up to 1.5 mm and with fewer, much shorter, ± medifixed, black hairs.

Subalpine steppes; 2000-3000 m. Xinjiang [Kyrgyzstan, Tajiki­stan, Uzbekistan].