木里报春 mu li bao chun

Primula coryana I. B. Balfour & Forrest ex W. W. Smith; P. muliensis Handel-Mazzetti; P. propinqua I. B. Balfour & Forrest.

Herbs perennial, with a 2--5 cm long stock formed by overlapping petioles and basal bud scales. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole broadly winged, initially concealed by bud scales, nearly as long as leaf blade at end of anthesis; leaf blade narrowly oblong-lanceolate, (4--)6--20 X 1.2--4.5 cm at anthesis, abaxially olive-colored farinose, base attenuate, margin ± regularly blunt dentate, apex acute. Scapes 15--35(--45) cm, elongating to 60 cm at anthesis, farinose toward apex; umbels 1 or 2(or 3), superimposed, 3--9-flowered; bracts lanceolate, 0.5--1.5 cm. Pedicel 1--3.5 cm, scarcely farinose. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx (0.8--)1--1.3 cm, parted slightly below middle; lobes oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, usually farinose inside, apex subacute. Corolla rose-lavender or rose-purple, campanulate, exannulate; limb 2.5--3.5 cm wide; lobes obovate, emarginate to occasionally erose-denticulate. Pin flowers: corolla tube slightly longer than calyx; stamens in lower 1/2 of tube; style nearly reaching mouth. Thrum flowers: corolla tube 1.25--1.5 X as long as calyx; stamens slightly above calyx; style ca. 3 mm. Capsule cylindric, ca. 2 X as long as calyx. Fl. May-Jun.

* Damp meadows, woodland margins, Rhododendron thickets; 3600--4000 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.