四川棘豆 si chuan ji dou

Herbs, 10-17 cm tall, caulescent, from a subterranean multiheaded caudex, with 1 or 2 apparent internodes. Stipules narrowly triangular, ca. 5 × 3 mm, thickly herbaceous, with sparse glands, basally connate. Leaves 3-8 cm, 7-21-foliolate; petiole 3-4.5 cm; rachis with brownish glands at insertion of leaflets, pilose; leaflet blades ovate, 5-12 × 2-5 mm. Racemes compact and not expanding in fruit, 7-9-flowered or more; pe­duncle 10-14 cm, densely crisp pubescent below inflorescence; bracts lanceolate, ca. 9 × 3 mm, membranous, blackish villous. Calyx subcylindric, 8-10 × ca. 4 mm, with spreading blackish and lax yellowish trichomes intermixed; lobes subulate, 4-5 × ca. 0.5 mm, as long as tube. Corolla reddish green, bluish violet, blue, yellow, or purple (when dry); standard 1.7-1.9 cm, lamina ovate, ca. 11 × 5 mm, and abruptly dilated below middle, apex emarginate; wings ca. 1.8 × 0.4 cm, apex retuse; keel ca. 1.5 cm, beak ca. 1.5 mm. Legume evidently stipitate; body narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 15 × 4.5 mm, with appressed dense blackish trichomes. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug.

● Forest margins, grasslands on ridges; 3900-4200 m. Sichuan.