抱茎独行菜 bao jing du xing cai

Herbs annual or biennial, (7-)15-40(-65) cm tall, glabrous throughout or sparsely pubescent below, often slightly glaucous. Stems erect, simple at base, branched above. Leaves strongly dimorphic. Basal and lowermost cauline leaves with petioles (0.5-)1-2(-4) cm; leaf blade 2- or 3-pinnatifid or -pinnatisect, (1-)3-8(-15) cm; ultimate lobes linear or narrowly oblong. Upper cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade broadly ovate, cordate, or suborbicular, (0.5-)1-3(-4) × (0.5-)1-2.5(-3.5) cm, base deeply cordate-amplexicaul, margin entire, apex acute. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, 3-5(-7) mm, slender, straight, glabrous, terete. Sepals yellowish green, oblong, 0.8-1(-1.3) × 0.5-0.8 mm. Petals yellow, narrowly spatulate, 1-1.5(-1.9) × 0.2-0.5 mm, base attenuate to a claw ca. 0.5 mm. Stamens 6; filaments 0.6-0.9 mm; anthers 0.1-0.2 mm. Fruit rhombic or orbicular, 3-4.5(-4.8) × 3-4 mm narrowly winged distally; wings apical, 0.2-0.4 mm; apical notch to ca. 0.3 mm; style 0.1-0.3 mm, as long as or shorter than apical notch. Seeds dark brown, ovate, 1.6-2(-2.3) × 1.2-1.4 mm, narrowly winged all around; cotyledons incumbent. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. May-Jul. 2n = 16.

Waste places, dry sandy slopes; near sea level to 1000 m. Gansu, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; introduced elsewhere].

Sometimes eaten as a vegetable or used medicinally as an antiscorbutic.