蓝花凤仙花 lan hua feng xian hua

Plants annual, 20-70 cm tall. Stem erect, robust, branched. Leaves alternate; petiole 1-3 cm; leaf blade elliptic or lanceolate, 5-10 × 2-4 cm, base with 2 glands shortly clawed or sessile, setose between teeth, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, base cuneate, margin coarsely crenate-serrate, apex acuminate or caudate. Pedicels ca. 1 cm, slender; bracts caducous, small. Flowers blue or purple-blue, large, 2-5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, obliquely orbicular, inequilateral, leathery, base downward-saccate. Lower sepal saccate 1-1.6 cm deep, narrowed into a slender, incurved spur. Upper petal orbicular, small, midvein fine; lateral united petals 2-lobed; basal lobes orbicular, small; distal lobes dolabriform, apex rounded. Anthers obtuse. Capsule narrowly fusiform, ca. 2 cm. Seeds oblong, 3-5 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Forest understories, along canals, shaded moist places, roadsides; 1000-2500 m. Guizhou, SE Yunnan.

The whole plant is used medicinally for relaxing and activating the tendons and for treating injuries and snakebites.