报春苣苔属 bao chun ju tai shu

Herbs, perennial, terrestrial or epipetric, rhizomatous, stemless. Leaves few, basal; leaf blade puberulent, base cordate. Inflorescences umbel-like, dense, axillary, 3-9-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, deeply 5-lobed; segments equal. Corolla pale purple, lobes with purple central stripe and apical band, zygomorphic, inside puberulent, nearly salverform; tube cylindric, not swollen, longer than limb, ca. 3 mm in diam.; limb indistinctly 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, slightly shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes subequal, apex rounded, erose. Stamens 2, adnate to abaxial side of corolla tube near base, included; anthers dorsifixed, coherent, thecae divaricate, confluent at apex, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminodes 3, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc of 2 glands, ringlike. Ovary narrowly ovoid, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, abaxial, narrowly obtrapeziform, 2-lobed. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, ellipsoid, shorter than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

* One species: endemic to China.