刺叶锦鸡儿 ci ye jin ji er

Caragana acanthophylla subsp. macrocalyx Yakovlev; C. arcuata Y. X. Liou.

Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Bark dark gray. Current-year branch­lets bright brown. Leaves pinnate, 4-10-foliolate; petiole and rachis 1.5-4 cm, persistent on long branchlets, caducous on short branchlets; leaflet blades obovate, narrowly obovate, or oblong, 4-12 × 3-5 mm, glabrous or appressed pubescent, apex obtuse. Flowers solitary, very rarely 2 in a fascicle. Pedicel 1-2.5 cm, articulate apically or basally from middle. Calyx tube campanulate-tubular, 6-10 mm. Corolla yellow, 2.6-3 cm; stan­dard broadly ovate; wings oblong, claw 1/3-1/2 as long as limb, auricle dentiform; keel with claw ca. 3/4 as long as limb, auricle small. Ovary glabrous. Legume 2-3 cm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul. 2n = 16.

Hillsides, river valleys, sandy areas; 1000-1300 m. Xinjiang [Ka­zakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].

Caragana arcuata is known only from the type, and it is ob­viously related to C. acanthophylla. The type specimen is depauperate, with only a few leaflets remaining and with a branch probably from the lower part of an old stem. A field study has not found any materials to support this species, thus it is treated here as a synonym of C. acan­thophylla.