川东獐牙菜 chuan dong zhang ya cai

Swertia longipes Franchet.

Perennials (5-)15-60 cm tall. Rhizomes slender, with few rootlets. Stems ascending to erect, subquadrangular, narrowly winged on angles, branched. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade linear-elliptic, 1.3-7 cm × 2-5 mm including petiole, base narrowed, apex obtuse, veins 1-3. Middle to upper stem leaves sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade linear, linear-lanceolate, or linear-elliptic, 1.5-3 cm × 1-3 mm, base obtuse, apex acuminate to obtuse, midvein distinct. Inflorescences panicles of cymes, many flowered, to 36 cm. Flowers 4merous. Pedicel erect, 0.5-3.5 cm, slender. Calyx tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes linear-lanceolate, 5-7 mm, apex acuminate, veins 1-3. Corolla pale blue, with blue veins, 1.2-1.5 cm in diam., tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 7-11 mm, apex acuminate. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, radially elongated, with a narrow scale and raised margin with many long fimbriae. Filaments 5-7 mm; anthers ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes capitate. Capsules ellipsoid, 0.8-1.2 cm. Seeds subglobose; seed coat warty. Fl. Sep-Nov.

* Beside streams, wet places, meadows, mixed forests; 900-1200 m. W Hubei, W Hunan, E Sichuan, Yunnan (Jingdong Xian).