异萼亚麻 yi e ya ma

Perennials 20-50 cm tall. Root woody, sturdy. Stems several, erect, glabrous or with grayish yellow to almost white scalelike trichomes. Leaves alternate, dense, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm × 2-5 mm, glabrous, 3- or 5-veined from base, base rounded, margin apically with reddish brown glandular trichomes, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences terminal, cymose, with 4-8 flowers. Flowers heterostylous. Pedicel ± as long as sepals, erect, sturdy. Sepals 5-8 mm; outer sepals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, herbaceous, margin glandular-ciliate, apex acute; inner sepals broadly ovate to rotund-ovate, at least 1 with margin glandular-ciliate. Petals blue to purple, long obovate, 3-4 × as long as sepals, base gradually narrowed into a claw, apically with a clear limb. Capsule yellowish brown, globose to oblate, 0.8-1.2 cm. Seeds pale yellowish brown, flattened ellipsoid, ca. 5 × 1.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

Flat areas on mountains, xeric thickets. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan].

This species is grown as an ornamental.