无距淫羊藿 wu ju yin yang huo

Herbs, 30-65 cm tall. Rhizome creeping, nodose, with numerous fibrous roots. Leaves basal and cauline, 3(or 5 or 7)-foliolate; petiole of basal leaf 3-15 cm; cauline leaf opposite or alternate, petiole 2-4 cm, sparsely brownish villous, but densely so at base and apex; leaflets adaxially deep green, ovate or narrowly ovate, 2.5-4.5 × 1.4-2.6 cm, leathery, abaxially sparsely white strigose on veins, adaxially glabrous, base deeply cordate, apex acute, terminal leaflet with equal rounded lobes, lateral leaflets oblique with outer lobe large and rounded, inner lobe smaller and rounded, margin remotely spinose-serrate. Inflorescence a raceme or sometimes subpaniculate, erect, 7-33 cm, slender; rachis, peduncle, and pedicels brownish red glandular pubescent. Pedicel 8-21 mm, slender. Flowers yellow, 8-10 mm in diam. Outer sepals caducous, pale purple, elliptic to broadly ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, membranous; inner sepals purple, lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 × ca. 1.5 mm. Petals yellow, sometimes purple spotted, obovate-orbicular, 6-8 × 4-5 mm, base cucullate, apex rounded, obtuse. Stamens ca. 4.5 mm; anthers ca. 1.5 mm, valved, valves revolute. Pistil longer than stamens. Capsule terete, short, 6-8 mm; style ca. 3 mm. Seeds reddish brown, shiny, reniform. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

● Forests, thickets, rocky slopes; 1100-2100 m. Sichuan.