小花角茴香 xiao hua jiao hui xiang

Hypecoum pendulum Linnaeus var. parviflorum (Karelin & Kirilov) Krylov.

Herbs, annual, glaucous. Cotyledons linear. Radical leaves many; petiole flat, vaginate at base; blade narrowly obovate, 5-7 cm, bipinnate; lobules linear, 3-10 × ca. 1 mm, apex acute. Flowering stems many, terete, 1-1.5 mm in diam., dichotomously branched. Flowers small, forming dichotomous cymes; bracts narrowly lobed, sessile. Pedicel 5-15 mm, nutant after flowering. Sepals early falling, broadly ovate, 1-1.5 mm. Corolla yellow, often with dark spots on inner petals; outer petals broadly elliptic, ca. 5 mm, entire; inner petals 3-parted to ca. 1/2; lateral lobes slightly divergent, shorter than median one; median lobe clearly stalked with fimbriate margin. Capsule nutant, 4-5 cm, angular in cross section, eventually breaking up into 1-seeded units, epidermis often persistent as a membranous sheath. Seeds pale brown, D-shaped, ca. 2 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

Plains, deserts, stony slopes. N and S Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia (Gorno-Altai), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran)].

This is possibly better treated as a variety of Hypecoum pendulum Linnaeus.

Hypecoum ferrugineomaculatum C. H. An (Fl. Xinjiang. 2(2): 373. 1995; type not recoverable, possibly lost) is said to differ from H. parviflorum by brownish spots on the inner petals. However, this is not uncommon in H. parviflorum and other species of H. sect. Pendulae.