中间车轴草 zhong jian che zhou cao

Perennial herbs, rhizomatous, pubescent to glabrescent. Stems decumbent or ascending, 20-50 cm, branches flexuous. Leaves palmately 3-foliolate, lower long petiolate, upper shortly petiolate; stipules linear-lanceolate, adnate to petiole for ca. 1/2 their length, free blade acuminately lanceolate; leaflets ellip­tic to broadly lanceolate, 15-55 × 6-20 mm, lateral veins 10-12, arching, branched, running into small marginal teeth, base rounded, margins entire to obscurely serrate, apex obtuse to acute. Flowers numerous, in globose to broadly ovate, termi­nal, solitary or paired, sessile or shortly pedunculate heads. Ca­lyx 5-6 mm, veins 10; teeth subulate, unequal, lower tooth longest. Corolla purple, 15-18 mm; standard oblong-ovate. Leg­ume ovoid. Seed 1, brown, angled. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Aug.

Cultivated, persisting after cultivation. Hebei, Shaanxi [native to SW Asia and Europe].