苍白紫堇 cang bai zi jin

Herbs, perennial, ca. 10 cm tall, glabrous; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots 3-6 cm × ca. 2 mm, tapering distally. Bulb prominent, rounded, 0.5-1 × ca. 0.5 cm, of several pale fleshy ovate scales. Stems 1 or 2, erect, simple, with a single leaf at middle. Radical leaf: petiole ca. 5 cm; blade strongly glaucous on both surfaces, suborbicular, ca. 1 × 1.3 cm, slightly thick, ternate; leaflets deeply 2-divided into broadly obovate overlapping lobes. Cauline leaf: petiole ca. 8 mm; blade ca. 1 × 1 cm, like radical leaf, but lobes narrower. Raceme 5-10-flowered; bracts oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 3-9 mm, entire or lower often with 2 or 3 smaller lateral lobes. Pedicel 6-18 mm. Sepals pinkish, 1-1.5 × 1.5-2 mm, laciniate-dentate. Corolla blue; outer petals rhombic, acute, narrowly crested; upper petal 13-14 mm; spur straight, cylindric or slightly tapering, 6-7 mm; nectary ca. 2/3 as long as spur; lower petal rhombic, ca. 9 mm, acute; inner petals ca. 8 mm. Stigma slightly emarginate, marginal apical papillae 4; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Fruit and seed unknown. Fl. Jul.

● Alpine turf precipices; ca. 4800 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.