鄂西沙参 e xi sha shen

Stems single, erect, 50-120 cm tall, simple, glabrous or puberulent. Cauline leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; blade lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 5-12 × 1.5-3 cm, both surfaces ± puberulent or sometimes glabrous, base cuneate or obtuse, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence branches ascending, long, slender, forming a panicle; pedicels slender, up to 1.5 cm. Hypanthium obovoid or obovoid-ellipsoid, glabrous; calyx lobes subulate, 4-8 × ca. 0.5 mm, margin with 2 or 3 pairs of denticles. Corolla blue-purple or pale blue, campanulate, 13-18 mm; lobes ovate-deltoid, 4-5 mm. Disk tubular, 1.8-3.2 mm, glabrous. Style 20-22 mm, exserted by 4-7 mm. Capsule ellipsoid, 7-8 × 3-4 mm. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Grassy slopes, scrub, rocks in forests; 1900-2600 m. W Hubei (Shennongjia).