直喙凤仙花 zhi hui feng xian hua

Plants annual, 30-50 cm tall, glabrous. Stem erect or basally prostrate, many branched in upper part, lower nodes swollen. Leaves alternate; petiole 2-5 cm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, green adaxially, ovate, 10-14 × ca. 5 cm, membranous, glabrous, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, curved, base cuneate or narrowly so, margin serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, 2- or 3-flowered; peduncles 2-5 cm. Pedicels 1-1.2 cm, slender, bracteate at base; bracts elliptic-obovate, 5-6 × 2-3 mm, 3-veined. Flowers purple, 1.2-1.4 cm wide. Lateral sepals 2, ovate, 6-8 mm, herbaceous, apex mucronulate. Lower sepal 1.4-1.5 cm deep, limb navicular, gradually narrowed into an involute, slender spur; mouth vertical, obtuse. Upper petal orbicular, ca. 6 mm, apex mucronulate, abaxial midvein erect, green, carinate, rostellate at middle; lateral united petals ca. 1.3 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes white, small, obtuse-rounded; distal lobes purple, dolabriform, larger, apically retuse; auricle inflexed, narrow. Filaments slender; anthers acute. Ovary erect, fusiform. Capsule not seen. Fl. Sep.

● Forest margins along grasslands; 1800-1900 m. NC Sichuan (Dujiang Yan).