髯萼紫堇 ran e zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 10-30(-40) cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome horizontal, slender, branched, at branch apices with more densely set small fleshy scales and petiolar bases. Stems erect, slender, simple, with 1(or 2) leaves in upper 1/2, and often a leaf at stem base similar to radical leaves. Radical leaves 2-5; petiole 3-20 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces or green adaxially, orbicular, 2-5 × 2-6 cm, ternate to biternate; primary leaflets with petiolule 5-10 mm; secondary leaflets sessile, entire to slightly or deeply 2- or 3-cleft into broadly obovate obtuse to truncate lobes. Cauline leaves with short petiole 1-2(-5) mm; blade like radical leaves. Raceme 7-14-flowered, 2-4 cm; lower bracts to 25 mm, like upper cauline leaf, deeply 3-8-palmatisect, middle bracts 8-14 mm, obovate, trifid, upper entire, ca. 10 mm. Pedicel 10-20 mm, erect in fruit. Sepals white, rarely purple, 4-9 × 3-6 mm, deeply fimbriate-dentate. Petals pale blue to bluish purple, inner petals white but internal apical dark blotch visible through tissue from outside; outer petals with broad dentate margin, obtuse to long mucronate at apex, dorsal crest deeply dentate to subentire, 1.5-3 mm wide, slightly to conspicuously overtopping apex; upper petal 18-24 mm, spur downcurved at apex, cylindric, 10-13 mm; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal straight to deeply saccate, 13-14 mm, gradually widened to broadly obovate dentate limb; inner petals 10-12 mm. Stigma quadrate; marginal simple papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral broad, diffuse; geminate papillae lateral and on well-developed basal lobes. Capsule obovoid, 7-9 × ca. 3 mm, 3-9-seeded; style ca. 3.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Forest understories, among shrubs, meadow slopes; 3300-4300 m. N Sichuan (Barkam, Pingwu, Songpan, Xiaojin).