盾萼紫堇 dun e zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 15-20 cm tall, glabrous. Rootstock short, with dense apical leaf rosette. Stems ascending to suberect from below rosette, simple or with late branches above, with 2-5 leaves. Rosette leaves: petiole 3-6 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, broadly ovate, 1-2.5 × 1-2.5 cm, ternate; leaflets deeply ternatisect, lobes obovate, again shallowly divided at apex, lobules rounded-obtuse. Cauline leaves: petiole 1-3 cm; blade 2-4 × 3-4 cm, otherwise like rosette leaves. Raceme 5-10-flowered, dense in flower, elongating to 6 cm in fruit; lower bract like cauline leaves (to 3 cm including petiole ca. 1 cm), upward smaller and less divided, uppermost one deeply 3-divided. Pedicel straight, 3-5 mm in flower, 10-15 mm in fruit. Flowers nodding, ivory white, inner petals with purple apex. Sepals rounded, entire, ca. 5 × 5.5 mm. Outer petals subacute, with crest ca. 1 mm wide, tapering to both ends, not decurrent on spur; upper petal ca. 15 mm; spur downcurved, cylindric, ca. 7 mm; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal ca. 8 mm, claw saccate in lower 1/3 with an extra small pouch at very base; inner petals ca. 7 mm. Stigma square; marginal simple papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral diffuse; geminate papillae lateral and in basal corners. Capsule obovoid, 10-12 × ca. 3 mm, 10-15-seeded. Seeds in 2 rows, ca. 1 mm, smooth; caruncle large. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

● Stone crevices, Abies forests; 3300-3400 m. NW Yunnan (Lijiang).