矬紫堇 cuo zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 4-10 cm tall, very blue-glaucous and fleshy, condensed. Rootstock long, slender, 3-5 mm at apex, crowned by a lax rosette of leaves and 1 to several stems. Stems simple or often branched, with 3 or 4 leaves, with lowermost leaves set at middle of stem, often subopposite; basal parts of stems and petioles of radical leaves pale and flexuous, partly buried in scree. Radical leaves: blade triangular, 2-4 × 1-3 cm, bi- to tripinnate; secondary leaflets deeply divided into oblanceolate fleshy crowded lobes. Cauline leaves like radical ones, but narrower and shortly stalked. Racemes dense, corymbose, 6-15-flowered, usually overtopping leaves; bracts with broad cuneate base, above flabellately dissected into 3-10 linear segments, 10-25 mm. Pedicel suberect, straight, 15-25 mm, at fruiting hooked at apex. Sepals 0.5-1 × 0.5-1 mm, dentate. Corolla pale blue or white with darker apex, white part with distinct pinkish venation, apex of inner petals tipped with blackish purple, dorsal crests slightly paler; outer petals with triangular subobtuse limb, usually crested; upper petal 14-16 mm, crest not reaching spur, and not overtopping apex; spur slightly downcurved, 3-5(-6) mm; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur, thin; inner petals 9-10 mm. Stigma with broad confluent marginal papillae; submarginal geminate papillae present; basal lobes well developed, with geminate papillae. Capsule obovoid, ca. 6 × 2-3 mm, 5-10-seeded; style 3-3.5 mm. Seeds ca. 0.8 mm, smooth. Fl. Jul.

Bouldery scree; 4500-6100 m (elevational span for total distribution). S Xizang (Burang) [India (NE Kumaon), NW Nepal].