洪坝山紫堇 hong ba shan zi jin

Type: China. Sichuan: W of Shimian, Hongbashan, gravel by roadside, alt. 1800 m, M. Lidén & Y. W. Wang 2006-69 (holotype, UPS; isotype, PE).

Ab affini Corydale shimienensi habitu diffuso, racemis paucifloris, foliis subtus minute papillatis atque seminibus non carinatis differt. A specie similari C. duclouxii rhizomate simplici, racemis paucifloris atque pedicellis longioribus distinguenda.

Paratypes: M. Lidén & Y. W. Wang 2006-70 (PE, UPS).

Herbs, perennial or biennial, with simple or branched slightly fleshy taproot crowned by small leaf scars, a leaf rosette, and 2 or 3 stems. Main stems 30-50 cm, thin, with 3 or 4(-6) leaves, diffusely branched especially above; branch below raceme continuing lead of shoot, displacing terminal raceme to a pseudolateral position. Lower cauline leaves: petiole 7-12 cm; blade ca. 9 × 8 cm, biternate; primary leaflets long stalked, secondary ones shortly stalked; upper leaves smaller; leaflets broadly obovate, shallowly cut into acute lobes, strongly glaucous, very finely and densely papillose abaxially. Racemes 5-10-flowered, leaf-opposed; bracts shorter than pedicels, shortly stalked, obovate, lower bracts divided with lateral lobes; upper ones progressively smaller, uppermost entire. Pedicel 7-12 mm. Flowers unknown. Fruit linear, 15-20 × ca. 1 mm, 10-20-seeded; style ca. 3 mm. Seeds ca. 1 mm, with rounded obtuse back; caruncle prominent.

● Roadside gravel, cliffs; 1800-2000 m. W Sichuan (Shimian).

Corydalis hongbashanensis, of which the flowers are not known, is vegetatively similar to C. duclouxii, which differs in having a thick knotty and contorted rhizome, more floriferous racemes, and shorter pedicels. It is, according to DNA sequences, closely related to C. shimienensis, which grows in similar situations at slightly lower elevations in the same area, but the latter is more erect, has denser more floriferous racemes, and sharply keeled seeds. Further, it lacks the minute papillae on the leaf underside.

The specific epithet is based on the geographic locality of the type.