细柄蔓龙胆 xi bing man long dan

Stems twining, to 3 mm in diam., terete, striate, internodes 4-13 cm. Lower stem leaves 3 to many pairs; leaf blade scalelike, ovate, to 1 cm. Middle to upper leaves sessile or petiole to ca. 3 mm; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 5-8 × 2-3 cm, leathery, sparsely hirsute or papillate along veins, base rounded, apex acuminate and caudate, veins 3-5. Inflorescences 1- (or 2)-flowered. Pedicel 2-9 cm, slender; bractlets sometimes present, small. Calyx campanulate; tube ca. 8 mm, entire or split on 1 side; lobes linear, 7-8 mm, apex acute. Corolla blue to blue-purple, campanulate, 2-2.5 cm; lobes broadly triangular, ca. 2 × 3 mm, apex acute; plicae semiorbicular to truncate, oblique, ca. 1 × 2 mm, margin erose. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; filaments linear-subulate, 9-10 mm; anthers ellipsoid, ca. 2 mm. Nectaries ovate. Style short, ca. 4 mm including linear stigma lobes. Capsules brown, ellipsoid, compressed, 1-1.5 cm × ca. 6 mm, exserted from corolla; gynophore 2-2.5 cm, slender. Seeds brown, ellipsoid to ovoid, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.

* Grassland slopes; ca. 3000 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.