大花车轴草 da hua che zhou cao

Perennial herbs, pubescent to glabrescent. Stems prostrate to ascending, 3-15 cm, branches 3-10, arising from a taproot, bases covered by persistent stipules and old leaves. Leaves pal­mately 3-foliolate, sessile to shortly petiolate; stipules ovate-oblong to lanceolate, membranous, connate for most of their length, apex acute; leaflets obovate-elliptic, 5-20 × 4-14 mm, lateral veins 6 pairs, forked and running to serrulate margin, base broadly cuneate, apex obtuse. Flowers 1-5, in axillary um­bels subtended by scarious involucres; peduncle 5-40 mm; pedicels 1-4 mm, reflexed in fruit. Calyx 6-8 mm, pubescent to glabrescent, veins 10; teeth broadly triangular, 1-2 × length of tube. Corolla red, rarely white, 15-20 mm. Ovary sessile to shortly stipitate; ovules 6-8. Legume slightly falcate, 11-15 mm. Seeds 3-5, brown, ovoid, 1.8-2 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

Moist belt along subalpine coniferous forests, rocky places in al­pine valleys, glacial moraines; above 1500 m. N Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].