苍白龙胆 cang bai long dan

Gentiana pallescens Harry Smith.

Annuals 3-5 cm tall. Stems purple, prostrate to ascending, 2 or 3 × dichotomously branched from base, glabrous. Basal leaves withered at anthesis; petiole 1-2 mm; leaf blade involucriform, ovate-orbicular, 0.7-1.7 × 0.7-1.3 cm, margin indistinct and cartilaginous, apex rounded with a recurved tip; veins 1-3, distinct, slender. Stem leaves 2 or 3 pairs, widely spaced; petiole tube 1.5-2 mm; leaf blade 4-5 × 2-4.5 mm, much shorter to slightly longer than internodes. Lower stem leaves spatulate to obovate; upper leaves linear to elliptic, margin membranous and smooth or ciliolate, apex acuminate to obtuse, veins 1-3. Flowers few. Pedicel 0.5-2.5 cm, glabrous. Calyx narrowly obconic, 5-7 mm; lobes narrowly triangular, 2-3 mm, margin narrowly membranous, apex acute and apiculate, midvein distinct. Corolla inside white or pale blue, with blackish stripes in throat and sometimes blackish spots, funnelform, 1-1.3(-1.5) cm; lobes ovate, 2.5-3 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse; plicae oblong to ovate-orbicular, 1-1.5 mm, margin entire or denticulate, apex obtuse to truncate. Stamens inserted just below middle of corolla tube, unequal; filaments 2.5-4 mm; anthers ellipsoid, 0.5-0.7 mm. Style 1-1.5 mm; stigma lobes linear. Capsules narrowly obovoid, 3.5-4.5 mm; gynophore to 3.2 cm, stout. Seeds light brown, triquetrous, 1-1.2 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Aug.

* Grassland slopes, alpine meadows; 3000-4200 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.