荞麦地凤仙花 qiao mai di feng xian hua

Impatiens hookeriana H. Léveillé, Cat. Pl. Yun-Nan, 122. 1916, not Arnott (1835).

Plants annual, 30-100 cm tall, glabrous. Stem erect, basally long naked. Leaves alternate; petiole long, 3-5 cm; leaf blade gray-white abaxially, dark green adaxially, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or ovate-oblong, 10-15 × 4-6 cm, membranous, often with 1 or 2 pairs of stipitate basal glands, abaxially glabrous, adaxially sparsely white adpressed hairy, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, curved, midvein conspicuous abaxially, base broadly cuneate, attenuate into petiole, margin coarsely sharply serrate, teeth aristate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences in terminal leaf axils, 2-flowered; peduncles shorter than leaves, 4-5 cm. Pedicels 1.5-2 cm, bracteate at base; bracts caducous, ovate-lanceolate, 5-6 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers white, 2.5-3 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, broadly ovate-orbicular, ca. 7 × 5-6 mm, 6- or 7-veined, apex acuminate. Lower sepal broadly funnelform, 1-1.5 cm deep, gradually narrowed into an involute spur; spur pink spotted, 1-1.5 cm; mouth oblique, ca. 1 cm wide, tip acute. Upper petal suborbicular, ca. 1 × 0.6-0.7 cm, apex mucronulate, abaxial midvein thickened, cristate at middle; lateral united petals not clawed, 1.8-2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes orbicular; distal lobes oblong-dolabriform; auricle inflexed, reniform. Filaments linear, compressed, ca. 5 mm; anthers ovoid, apex acute. Ovary erect, fusiform. Capsule not seen. Fl. Aug-Sep.

● Grasslands along canals; 1900-3000 m. NE Yunnan.

This species differs from other Chinese species in having leaves bicolored, large, with a coarsely and sharply serrate margin and aristate apex, and flowers white, large, with an involute, pink spotted spur.