龙州凤仙花 long zhou feng xian hua

Plants annual, 30-60(-100) cm tall, glabrous. Stem erect, purple-tinged, robust, succulent, simple or branched, long naked in lower part. Leaves alternate, crowded apically; petiole 3-5 cm, stout; leaf blade greenish abaxially, dark green adaxially, ovate, elliptic, or ovate-oblong, 8-13 × 5-7 cm, with 2 globose basal glands, glabrous, lateral veins 9-12 pairs, base cuneate or acuminate, margin serrulate or crenulate, teeth mucronulate, apex acute. Peduncles absent. Pedicels 4-5 cm, without bracts, elongate after anthesis. Flowers solitary in upper leaf axils, white, pink, or purple, inside orange spotted, 2.5-3 cm. Lateral sepals 2, green, obliquely orbicular, 0.8-1.5 cm, thick, many veined, midvein conspicuous, apex mucronulate. Lower sepal navicular or funnelform, ca. 1.2 cm deep, abruptly constricted into an incurved spur shorter than limb; mouth vertical, ca. 1.5 cm wide. Upper petal orbicular, 1-1.5 cm wide, apex deeply retuse, abaxial midvein thickened; lateral united petals clawed, 2-lobed; basal lobes falcate-flabellate; distal lobes oblong, connate into 2-lobed lamella; auricle inconspicuous. Filaments linear, flattened; anthers obtuse. Ovary fusiform. Capsule not seen. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.

● Dense forest understories, streamsides in valleys, shaded and humid places; 400-1000 m. Guangxi.

This species has been recently cultivated in the Guangxi Botanic Garden.