覆鳞紫堇 fu lin zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 30-50 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome clad with large fleshy imbricate scales; stems slender, simple, with 1(or 2) leaves in upper 1/3. Radical leaves few; petiole 17-30 cm; blade very glaucous abaxially, dark green adaxially, ternate, 3-4 × 4-5 cm, slightly fleshy; leaflets shortly stalked (petiolule of median leaflet 9-12 mm, lateral 2-3 mm), divided almost to base into 2 or 3 broadly obovate lobes, cut to 1/3 into 2 or 3 rounded lobules 3-7 mm wide; cauline leaves like radical leaves, but subsessile and slightly smaller. Racemes very lax, ca. 10-flowered; lowermost bract similar to cauline leaves, but smaller and less divided; upper oblanceolate, 5-9 mm, entire; lowermost pedicels up to 32 mm, upper ones much shorter, at least at anthesis, 11-15 mm. Sepals small, ca. 1 × 1.5 mm, deeply divided. Corolla purplish blue, darker toward apical keel of outer petals; outer petals acute to shortly acuminate at apex, without or with narrow crest; upper petal 26-28 mm; spur cylindric, 12-16 mm; nectary ca. 2/3 as long as spur; lower petal acuminate, claw with a pronounced sac; inner petals 13-14 mm. Stigma with 4 or 6 prominent marginal simple papillae at apex; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Ovary with 15 ovules; style 5-6 mm. Capsule not seen. Fl. Jun-Jul.

● Under shrubs; ca. 3400 m. SC and W Sichuan (Ebian, Luding).