独尾草 du wei cao

Leaves 15--55 × 0.3--2.2 cm, glabrous, margin minutely crenulate or serrulate, sometimes obscurely so. Scape 45--120 cm, glabrous. Raceme 10--40 cm at anthesis, densely many flowered; bracts lanceolate, 0.4--2(--3.5) cm, midvein dark brown, margin pale, membranous, entire or densely and minutely serrulate to fimbriate, apex long filiform acuminate. Pedicels spreading or slightly ascending, 1--3.5 cm, slender. Perianth narrowly campanulate; segments white, narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate-linear, 1--1.2 × 0.2--0.45 cm, with 1 dark vein from base, scarcely involute after anthesis, not persistent in fruit. Stamens shorter than perianth. Capsule erect (pedicel bent at apex), green or greenish yellow to brown, subglobose, 0.6--1 cm in diam., usually wrinkled. Seeds brown, 4--5.5 × 2.5--3 mm including 0.1--0.8 mm wings along angles. Fl. May--Sep, fr. Jul--Sep.

* Scrub, alpine meadows, stony pastures, dry open hillsides, gravelly slopes, among rocks and boulders, crevices and ledges of cliffs, on acidic or limestone substrates; 1000--3800 m. S Gansu, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.