孪果鹤虱 luan guo he shi

Lithospermum retortum Pallas; Rochelia disperma Hochreutiner; R. retorta (Pallas) Lipsky; R. stellulata Reichenbach.

Plants 10-15 cm tall, gray-white hispid, hairs spreading or somewhat spreading, becoming mostly hooklike at apex on pedicel and calyx. Stems erect, usually branched from base; branches slender, ascending. Basal leaves short petiolate, oblanceolate to obovate, 1-2 cm; stem leaves sessile, lanceolate to linear, 1-2 cm, abaxially with veins protruding, apex ± obtuse. Inflorescences 5-10 cm in fruit; bracts oblanceolate to obovate, smaller than leaves. Pedicel 5-7 mm, spreading or slightly recurved. Flowers widely spaced. Calyx lobes linear, becoming semiterete, incurved, ca. 2 mm, to 4-5 mm in fruit, persistent. Corolla light blue-purple; tube almost as long as calyx; throat appendages low trapeziform; lobes of limb unequal, obovate. Anthers ca. 0.3 mm. Style persistent on apex of gynobase in fruit, surpassing nutlets, ca. 0.6 mm. Nutlets obliquely narrowly ovoid, 2-3 mm, tubercles stellate pubescent at apex. Fl. Apr-May.

Saline and alkaline areas; ca. 2700 m. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].