昌都紫堇 chang du zi jin

Corydalis tenuicalcarata C. Y. Wu & Z. Y. Su.

Herbs, perennial, 10-35 cm tall, glabrous or papillose-scabrid on veins (especially bracts) and stems; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots narrowly oblong, 5-15 cm, more thickened distally. Stems few, with 4-6 scattered leaves, branched throughout. Radical leaves early withering, like lower cauline leaves. Cauline leaves with lower petiole 1-3 cm, middle and upper leaves sessile; blade glaucous abaxially, bright green adaxially, broadly ovate, 4-10 × 2-4 cm (or much less in starved specimens), bi-(tri-)pinnate; pinnae 3 or 4 pairs, nearly opposite, distant, lower ones long petiolulate, upper ones sessile; pinnules subsessile, deeply or slightly 2-6-lobed; lobes elliptic to oblanceolate, acuminate; upper leaves much smaller and less divided. Racemes 5-10 cm, 10-25-flowered; bracts 4-10 mm, from short broad stalk palmately lobate into thin linear lobes. Pedicel 4-9 mm, to 11 mm and recurved in fruit. Sepals whitish, 1-1.5 × 1-1.5 mm, rounded, finely circumdentate. Corolla pale to bright yellow, with dark veins; inner petals orange-yellow at apex; upper petal (18-)23-25 mm, limb rhombic, apex shortly acuminate; crest (1-)1.5-2 mm wide, slightly overtopping apex, shortly and narrowly decurrent on spur, entire or dentate; spur gracefully arcuate (rarely straight), attenuate to tip, (9-)14-17 mm; nectary 1/3-2/5 as long as spur; lower petal rhombic-obovate, ca. 10 mm, crest short; base shallowly saccate; inner petals 7-9 mm. Capsule obovoid, 6-13 × 3-4 mm, with lines of vesicular papillae, 3-6-seeded; style 3-3.5 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug.

● Montane slopes, alpine scree; 3900-4100 m. NW Sichuan (Dêgê, Garzê), NE Xizang.