龙溪紫堇 long xi zi jin

Herbs, perennial, glaucous, 15-20 cm tall. Rhizome horizontal, thin, set with small fleshy persistent petiolar bases, terminating in leaf rosette. Stems erect, 2-4, usually simple, with 1 or 2 leaves. Radical leaves: petiole 5-11 cm, shortly fleshy-vaginate at base; blade oblong, 5-9 × ca. 2 cm, pinnate with 2-4 pairs of pinnae, pinnae shortly petiolulate to sessile, ovate, 1-2 × 0.5-1 cm, base cuneate, shallowly pinnatifid with 2 or 3 pairs of obtuse mucronulate lobes. Cauline leaves like rosette leaves, long stalked. Raceme very condensed, subumbellate, rachis zigzag, 3-5-flowered; bracts obovate, 8-15 × 5-9 mm, large dentate, simple or with a couple of small free leaflets at base. Pedicel straight, 12-20 mm, hardly elongating in fruit. Sepals 1-3 × 1-2 mm, with long teeth. Corolla pink; upper petal 24-27 mm, with small subapical crest, apex retuse, ca. 4 mm wide, slightly dentate, mucronate; spur upturned from base, straight, narrow, slightly tapering, 18-23 mm; nectary 8-10 mm; lower petal 12-14 mm, with conspicuous subbasal pouch, limb ca. 5 mm wide, broadly emarginate, mucronate; inner petals 10-11 mm. Stigma oblong, with callous emarginate stigmatic area at apex, in lower 1/2 with 1 pair of simple and 1 pair of geminate lateral papillae. Capsule lanceolate, 12-15 × ca. 3 mm, 20-27-seeded; style ca. 3 mm, thickened below stigma. Seeds small. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

● Wet cliffs; ca. ?1200 m. W Sichuan (Emei), N Yunnan (Eryuan, Yanjin).