西南风铃草 xi nan feng ling cao

Campanula colorata Wallich; C. colorata var. tibetica J. D. Hooker & Thomson; C. microcarpa C. Y. Wu; C. pallida var. tibetica (J. D. Hooker & Thomson) H. Hara.

Plants perennial. Roots carrot-shaped, sometimes slightly thicker than stems. Stems single, sometimes 2 or rarely several from a single caudex, ascending or erect, up to 60 cm tall, hirsute. Lower leaves winged-petiolate, upper leaves sessile; blade elliptic, rhombic-elliptic, or oblong, 1-4 × 0.3-1.5 cm, abaxially densely hirsute or hispid only along veins, adaxially appressed hispid, margin denticulate or almost entire, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse. Flowers pendent, terminal, sometimes in cymes. Hypanthium obconic or campanulate, hispid; calyx lobes deltoid, narrowly triangular, or subulate, 2-8 mm, abaxially hispid (sometimes only along veins), margin entire or rarely serrulate. Corolla purple, blue-purple, or blue, tubular-campanulate, 4-15 mm; lobes ca. 1/2 as long to ± as long as tube. Style less than 2/3 as long as corolla, included. Capsule obconic, obovoid, or globose. Seeds golden brown, oblong or elliptic, compressed. Fl. May-Sep. 2n = 24, 28.

Grassy slopes, open woods; 1000-1400 m. W Guizhou, W Sichuan, S Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand].

Both chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers are found in this species. In the latter, development of the corolla is arrested at an early stage; as a result, the calyx lobes are deltoid (vs. narrowly triangular or subulate) and much shorter than in the former. The capsules produced by cleistogamous flowers are globose (vs. obconic or obovoid) and much smaller than those from chasmogamous flowers. Individual plants may bear both types of flowers or, less commonly, only cleistogamous flowers; the type of C. microcarpa is a specimen of the latter.