车前叶报春 che qian ye bao chun

Primula sinoplantaginea Credit: Harvard University Herbaria

Herbs perennial, with a long stock formed by overlapping petioles and basal bud scales. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole broadly winged, usually nearly as long as leaf blade; leaf blade lanceolate, (3--)4--10 X 0.6--1.5 cm, rarely linear, only 3--4 mm wide, sparsely pale yellow farinose or sometimes efarinose, base attenuate, margin entire to obscurely denticulate, usually narrowly revolute, apex acute. Scape (5--)10--20 cm, farinose toward apex; umbels 1(or rarely 2), (2--)5--12-flowered; bracts linear-lanceolate, 0.7--1.5 cm. Pedicel 1--2 cm, elongating to 4 cm in fruit, pale yellow farinose. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 8--11 mm, usually blackish outside, densely farinose inside, parted slightly below middle; lobes narrowly oblong to lanceolate, apex subacute. Corolla deep purple or violet; tube 1.1--1.3 cm; limb 1.5--2 cm wide; lobes oblong-elliptic, margin entire. Pin flowers: stamens ca. 4 mm above base of corolla tube; style slightly longer than calyx. Thrum flowers: stamens at upper 1/3 of corolla tube; style reaching middle of tube. Capsule cylindric, 1--2 X as long as calyx. Fl. May-Jul. 2n = 22@.

* Wet meadows, woodland margins; 3600--4500 m. W Sichuan, NW Yunnan