巨萼紫堇 ju e zi jin

Type: China. Sichuan: Pengxian, Jiufengshan, Baishuihe National Natural Reserve, Pengzhou City, alt. 2000 m, X. F. Gao et al. 8480 (holotype, CDBI).

A Corydale brunneovaginata sepalis plus quam triplo majoribus valde dentatis differt.

Paratype: X. F. Gao et al. 8522 (CDBI).

Herbs, perennial, 30-40 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome with apical leaf rosette from large bulb formed by very fleshy scales and petiolar bases 15-25 × 15-20 mm. Stems axillary from last year’s bulb scales, erect, simple or branched, with 2 or 3 scattered leaves. Rosette leaves large (earliest smaller but early withering); petiole 10-18 cm; blade green, triangular, 6-9 × 4-9 cm, bi- to triternate; pinnae petiolulate; pinnules petiolulate or nearly sessile, much divided into ovate to oblong mucronate lobules. Cauline leaves like rosette leaves. Raceme very dense in early stage, ca. 10-flowered; bracts 10-20 mm, deeply palmatisect. Pedicel erect, straight, 8-10 mm (young raceme). Sepals 6-8 × 4-5 mm, much dentate. Flowers purple; outer petals with broad slightly undulate margins, shortly acuminate, with short broad (ca. 3 mm) crest overtopping apex; upper petal ca. 30 mm; spur arcuately downcurved, conical, attenuate to narrow tip, ca. 15 mm; nectary ca. 2/3 as long as spur; lower petal very shallowly saccate in middle part, base constricted into short claw; inner petals 13-14 mm. Ovary with 27 ovules; stigma square; marginal papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral ones confluent; geminate papillae lateral and in basal corners; style ca. 3 mm. Fruit unknown.

● Forest understories; ca. 2000 m. NC Sichuan (Pengxian).

This poorly known species differs from the closely related Corydalis brunneovaginata by its very large sepals.

The specific epithet refers to the bulb formed by the dense fleshy petiole bases of the rosette leaves, from Greek πυκνός (pycnos, "dense") and πους (pous, "foot").