小距凤仙花 xiao ju feng xian hua

Plants perennial, 20-30 cm tall; rhizome procumbent, glabrous. Stems many, ascending or curved, purple, simple or branched. Leaves alternate, subsessile, lower leaves small, withering early, upper leaves crowded, subverticillate; leaf blade yellow-brown abaxially when dry, dark green adaxially, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 5-9 × 2-3.5 cm, membranous, abaxially with stipitate fusiform glands, setose between teeth, adaxially scabrid, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, base cuneate, narrowed, margin coarsely crenate, nearly entire basally, apex shortly acuminate or obtuse. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, 1- or 2(or 3)-flowered; peduncles erect, shorter than leaves, 2-3 cm. Pedicels shortly bracteate at base or above; bracts ovate, 2-3 mm, membranous, apex emarginate, retuse, mucronulate. Flowers pink-purple, 2-2.5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, green, oblong-ovate, 3-4 mm, base oblique, apex rigidly mucronulate. Lower sepal funnelform, dilated at middle, 1.5-1.7 cm deep, narrowed into an erect, subglobose spur; mouth oblique, rostellate, nearly as long as limb, 5-6 mm wide. Upper petal broadly ovate, 8-9 mm, abaxial midvein thickened, narrowly carinate, green, mucronulate; lateral united petals not clawed, ca. 2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes ovate-orbicular, large; distal lobes lorate, longer, narrower, apex obtuse; auricle small. Filaments ligulate; anthers obtuse. Capsule not seen. Fl. Aug-Sep.

● Forest understories; 2300-3500 m. NW Yunnan (Nu Jiang).