苦黄耆 ku huang qi

Astragalus forrestii N. D. Simpson var. minor H. T. Tsai & T. T. Yu.

Plants 40-50 cm tall, appressed to subappressed, white and dark brown hairy. Stem up to 2 mm thick, branched, erect, hollow, glabrous at base, upper parts rather densely covered with curly hairs 0.1-0.25 mm. Leaves 3.5-5.5 cm; stipules 3-5 mm, white and black ciliate; petiole short, rachis hairy like stem; leaflets in 10-18 pairs, narrowly elliptic, 3-8 × 1.5-3.5 mm, abaxially sparsely to loosely hairy, adaxially glabrous, apex obtuse. Racemes 2-3 cm, densely 10-15-flowered; peduncle 2-5 cm, hairy; bracts 1.5-2.5 mm, blackish brown hairy, per­sistent. Bracteoles subulate, 1-2 mm. Calyx 4-5 mm, with appressed blackish brown hairs; teeth unequal, 0.5-2 mm. Pet­als yellow; standard widely obovate, 9-11 × 5.5-7.5 mm, apex emarginate; wings 8-9 mm; keel 7.5-9 mm. Stigma glabrous. Legumes with a stipe 3-4 mm, obliquely narrowly ellipsoid, 6-13 mm, 3.5-4.5 mm high and wide, keeled ventrally, shallowly grooved dorsally, with a beak ca. 1 mm, 2-locular; valves gla­brous.

● 3000-3900 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.