矮脚锦鸡儿 ai jiao jin ji er

Shrubs to 30 cm tall. Bark yellowish brown to grayish brown. Current-year branchlets brown to yellowish brown. Leaves digitate, 4-foliolate; petiole 4-10 mm and persistent on long branchlets, absent on short branchlets; leaflet blades oblan­ceolate, 2-10 × 1-3 mm, both surfaces pubescent, apex acute. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 2-5 mm, articulate basally. Calyx red­dish purple to greenish brown, 0.9-1.1 cm, base gibbous. Co­rolla yellow but with orange or purple at middle, 2-2.5 cm, apex slightly emarginate; wings with claw ± as long as limb, apex obliquely truncate, auricle small and short; keel as long as wings, claw long, auricle short. Ovary glabrous. Legume spin­dlelike, 2-3.5 cm, turgid, glabrous, apex acuminate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 16, 32.

Bases of hills, stony areas, sand dunes; 900-2000 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi (Dingbian) [S Mongolia].