丽江黄堇 li jiang huang jin

Herbs, perennial, (pale) green or glaucous, 10-38 cm tall, glabrous to papillose-scabrid on abaxial leaf veins; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots oblong, 1-3 cm × 3-4 mm, sharply set off from thin simple or rarely branched stalk 2-8 cm. Stems 1 to several, erect and simple to decumbent and branched, with 2-5 leaves. Radical leaves few, some conspicuously enlarging after flowering; petiole 5-15 cm (or longer in shade); blade broadly ovate, 2-5 cm, with raised parallel veins abaxially, biternatisect to biternate; lobules narrowly obovate to lanceolate, slightly 2- or 3-divided, acute. Cauline leaves sessile or with short flat petiole; blade broadly ovate, lower one 3-5 × ca. 4 cm, upper ones smaller, grading into lowermost bracts, pinnatifid (i.e., not cut quite to midvein) with inner lobes again 2- or 3-cleft, or biternatisect; ultimate lobes narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 1-2 × 0.2-0.4 cm. Raceme 4-13 cm, 10-24-flowered; lower bracts almost like uppermost cauline leaves; middle bracts deeply flabellate to pinnately divided, lobes lanceolate-acuminate; upper bracts usually narrowly lanceolate, entire. Pedicel 8-15(-20) mm, rather stout, arcuately reflexed in fruit. Sepals 0.5-1 × 0.5-1 mm, finely dentate. Corolla yellow, with darker veins, often with brownish purple marks on dorsal keel of inner petals; upper petal navicular-ovate, 14-18 mm, apex subacute, abaxial crest 1.5-2 mm wide, tapering to both ends, long decurrent on spur; spur straight or slightly downcurved at tip, subcylindric, 6-8 mm, slightly narrowed at apex; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur; lower petal broadly obovate with indistinct claw, margin slightly undulate; inner petals 7-9 mm. Stigma square; median 2 apical papillae distinct, lateral marginal papillae broad and diffuse; geminate papillae submarginal and on pronounced basal lobes. Capsule obovoid, 7-10 × 3-4 mm, 2-8-seeded; style 3.5-4 mm. Seeds ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Jun (Aug-Sep).

● Alpine shrubs on limestone, disturbed stony patches in meadows, stony scree; 3000-4600 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

The habit of this species varies much depending upon place. If in a bush, it becomes long, slender, and simple, with leaves only in upper third. Plants growing in scree tend to be much more robust with leafy stems and, especially if the stems are horizontal or ascending, many branched (cf. Corydalis calcicola, species no. 234).