白花紫堇 bai hua zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 50-60 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome short, thick, densely clothed with fleshy scales, becoming a black and hard bulblike structure when dry. Stems slender, simple or with late branches above, with 3 or 4 leaves in upper 2/3. Rosette leaves few; petiole ca. 5 cm; blade 3-4 × 3-5 cm, bi- to triternate; leaflets stalked, deeply 3-6-divided; ultimate lobes oblong, ca. 2 mm wide. Cauline leaves like radical ones, but shortly stalked or sessile; ultimate lobes slightly broader. Racemes dense at first, soon elongating, 15-17-flowered; bracts 5-6 mm, narrowly lanceolate, entire or with a few narrow teeth; lowermost bract sometimes larger. Pedicel 7-9 mm, thin. Sepals minute. Corolla apparently white; outer petals subacute, without crest; upper petal 26-28 mm; spur almost straight to slightly bent downward at tip, 15-16 mm, slightly attenuate; nectary ca. 2/5 as long as spur; lower petal straight, ca. 12 mm, with narrow claw and rhombic limb; inner petals 11-12 mm. Ovary with 6 or 7 ovules; style ca. 4 mm; stigma square, slightly emarginate; marginal simple papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral diffuse; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and in basal corners. Capsule unknown. Fl. Jul.

● "W Sichuan" (without precise locality).