苍山木蓝 cang shan mu lan

Indigofera forrestii Craib.

Shrubs, 0.5-1.8 m tall. Stems light brown, with sparse scattered lenticels; young branches with appressed white and brown medifixed symmetrically 2-branched trichomes, glabres­cent. Stipules lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm. Leaves 6-9 cm, (5-)9-19-foliolate; petiole and rachis adaxially grooved, with appressed medifixed trichomes; petiole 0.8-2 cm; stipels minute; petio­lules ca. 1 mm; leaflet blades opposite, narrowly elliptic, 6-12(-18) × 4-6(-10) mm, both surfaces with sparse white and brown appressed medifixed trichomes, abaxially green, adaxi­ally brown or black when dry, midvein abaxially prominent and adaxially impressed, secondary veins not visible, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex rounded to truncate and mucronate. Racemes 6-12 cm, densely flowered; peduncle 4-15 mm; bracts ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, abaxially with appressed brown medi­fixed trichomes. Pedicel ca. 1.5 mm. Calyx 2-2.5 mm, with appressed brown medifixed trichomes; teeth triangular-lanceo­late, as long as tube. Corolla red, 6-9 mm; standard elliptic, ca. 6.5 mm, outside with appressed medifixed trichomes; wings ca. 6.5 mm; keel ca. 4.5 mm, outside apically hairy. Stamens 6-7 mm; anthers broadly ovoid, glabrous, apex mucronate. Ovary hairy, with 9 ovules; style glabrous. Legume linear, cylindric, 3-4 cm, with sparse appressed medifixed trichomes; endocarp blotched. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Sunny slopes, near streams; 2400-2900 m. S Sichuan, Yunnan.

Indigofera hancockii is very closely related to I. franchetii and might be better treated as a variety of that species.