立花黄堇 li hua huang jin

Herbs, perennial, 4-5 cm tall, very condensed with leaves, stems, and bract tips on same level. Rootstock vertical, tapering below, 0.5-1 cm in diam. at apex. Stems 4-5 cm, leafless at base, above with a few bractlike leaves with axillary racemes. Radical leaves crowded, vaginate at base, with broad flattened petiole (1.5-3 cm) and rachis; blade ovate, 2-3 × 1.5-2 cm, bi-(tri-)pinnate; ultimate leaflets divided into 3-7 small lanceolate mucronate lobules. Racemes very dense, 3-10-flowered; bracts obtriangular, 10-20 mm, with cuneate flat pale base, above repeatedly cut into 15-30 small narrow lobes; lobes acute, with long scabrid arista. Pedicels 10-15 mm, equaling or usually shorter than bracts, thin, erect, at fruiting hooked at very apex. Flowers vertically held with spur hidden in cushion. Sepals long persistent, deeply divided into 2 or 3 widely diverging acute lobes, to 1 mm wide. Corolla pale orange-yellow; outer petals with very short apical dorsal crests conspicuously surpassing apex; spur straight or slightly downcurved, 7-8 mm, narrow, tapering; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur, thin; inner petals ca. 6 mm. Capsule oblong, 3-11 × ca. 1.5 mm (length depending on number of developed seeds), 1-6-seeded; style 2-2.5 mm.

Bare ground; 3900-5000 m. S Xizang (Burang) [India (Kumaon)].