线基紫堇 xian ji zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 18-26 cm tall, glabrous; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots long and narrow, 4-10 cm × ca. 1 mm. Stems 2, erect, 18-26 cm, slender, simple, leafless in lower 1/3 or 1/2, above with 2 or 3 leaves. Radical leaves long stalked (5-7 cm), not withered in early fruiting stage; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, orbicular, 20-30 mm wide, deeply divided into 3-5 leaflets again cut into 2 or 3 linear-oblong lobes. Cauline leaves like radical leaves, deeply cut into 3-8 linear-oblong lobes ca. 2 cm × 2-4 mm. Racemes 5-16-flowered, dense at anthesis, lax in fruit; bracts narrowly lanceolate, subobtuse, 5-10 mm or lowermost much larger and occasionally divided like uppermost leaf. Pedicel very short at anthesis, elongating considerably to 12-20 mm and erect-spreading in fruit. Sepals ?minute. Corolla cream, with brownish yellow keels; inner petals with yellow tip turning brownish after pollination; outer petals with crest ca. 1 mm; upper petal 11-12 mm; spur ca. 4 mm; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal 9-10 mm; inner petals 8-9 mm, dorsal crest overtopping apex. Stigma didymous, cleft to middle, each 1/2 with 2 distinct long apical papillae and a shorter lateral papilla; geminate papillae on basal lobes. Capsule pendent from suberect pedicel, broadly obovoid, ca. 7 × 3.5 mm, 2-5-seeded; style ca. 2.5 mm. Seeds ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, smooth, with short and broad elaiosome. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul.

● Steep hillsides with scrub cover; ca. 3400 m. SE Qinghai (Baima).