华北獐牙菜 hua bei zhang ya cai

Swertia obtusipetala Grüning.

Perennials 8-55 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, striate, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves 1 or 2 pairs; petiole flattened, 2.5-6 cm, base connate; leaf blade oblong to elliptic, 2-9 × 1-3 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse to rounded, veins 3-5. Stem leaves 1 or 2 pairs, sessile, bractlike, ovate-oblong, 1.5-3 cm × 5-10 mm, base obtuse and subamplexicaul, apex obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences racemelike, (1-)3-9-flowered. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel spreading to erect, 2-5 cm. Calyx lobes ovate-lanceolate, 0.8-1.3 cm × 3-5 mm, margin membranous, apex acute. Corolla pale yellow-green, blue in middle of outer surface, 1.5-3 cm in diam., tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes oblong to elliptic, 1.5-2 cm, apex obtuse to rounded and erose. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 3-4 mm. Filaments 0.8-1.2 cm, base short fimbriate-barbate; anthers blue, ellipsoid, 3-4 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes ellipsoid to suborbicular. Capsules ellipsoid, as long as persistent corolla. Seeds dark brown, ellipsoid, 1-1.2 mm, longitudinally rugose. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

* Moist places, swamp meadows, scrub, alpine meadows; 1500-5300 m. S Gansu, W Hubei, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, E Xizang.