苦马豆 ku ma dou

Phaca salsula Pallas, Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 747. 1776; Swainsona salsula (Pallas) Taubert.

Subshrubs or perennial herbs. Stems erect or lower part stoloniferous, 0.3-0.6 m tall, rarely to 1.3 m. Branches with longitudinal rib, with sparse to dense pallid adpressed hairs. Leaves 11-21-foliolate; stipules linear-lanceolate or triangular to subulate; rachis 5-8.5 cm, adaxially grooved; petiolule short, puberulent; leaflets obovate to obovate-oblong, 5-15(-25) × 3-6(-10) mm, abaxially with appressed white fine hairs, adaxially with scattered hairs or glabrous, lateral veins inconspicuous, base rounded to broadly cuneate, apex retuse to rounded, mu­cronate. Racemes often longer than leaves, 6.5-13(-17) cm, 6-16-flowered; bract ovate-lanceolate. Pedicel 4-5 mm, densely white pilose, bracteoles linear to subulate. Calyx campanulate; teeth triangular, upper 2 shorter and wider, others longer and narrower, outside white pilose. Corolla red, becoming purple; standard suborbicular, reflexed outward, 12-13 × 12-16 mm, base shortly stipitate, apex retuse; wings shorter than keel, ca. 12 mm (including stalk), apex rounded, base with slightly curved stalk ca. 3 mm and auriculate lobes ca. 2 mm, lobes rounded at apex; keel ca. 13 × 4-5 mm, blunt at apex, stalk ca. 4.5 mm. Ovary ± linear, densely white pilose; style curved, only inner surface sparsely longitudinally barbate; stigma spheroidal. Legume ellipsoid or broadly ellipsoid, turgid, 1.7-3.5 × 1.7-1.8 cm, apex rounded, stalk ca. 10 mm, segments membranous, outside sparsely white pilose, densely so on suture. Seeds brown, reniform to nearly semicircular, ca. 2.5 mm; funicle 1-3 mm; hilum rounded and sunken. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jun-Sep.

Mountain slopes, plains, wastelands, sand, oases, ditch sides, around salt ponds; 1000-3200 m. Gansu, Hebei, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].