纤细黄堇 xian xi huang jin

Corydalis gracilis Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 33: 395. 1886, not Ledebour (1842).

Herbs, annual or biennial, 10-30(-60) cm tall, with simple taproot, never with adventitious fleshy roots. Stems weak, diffusely branched and leafy throughout. Petiole of lower leaves 1.5-7 cm, upper ones 1-4 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green to glaucous adaxially, 1-3(-5) × 1-3(-6) cm (larger in shade), 2-3 × ternate; primary pinnae long stalked; leaflets ± deeply divided into 2-4 obovate to oblanceolate lobes. Racemes subsecund, 3-9-flowered; bracts 3-8 mm, divided into 3-6 obovate lobes, or upper ones entire; lowermost often biternatisect into acute lobes. Pedicel strongly recurved in fruit, 4-8 mm. Sepals 0.5-1 mm, rounded, circumdentate. Corolla golden yellow or white (often mixed populations); apex of inner petals blackish purple; outer petals with broad limb, acute to shortly acuminate at tip; upper petal with crest not reaching apex, long decurrent on spur; spur upcurved, 5-7 mm, narrow; nectary 1/3-1/2 as long as spur; inner petals 4.5-5 mm; lower petal with narrow claw and rhombic acute limb, straight or sometimes saccate at base, not or very narrowly crested. Stigma with prominent geminate papillae and 4 stipitate apical papillae. Fruit narrowly obovoid, 6-10 × 2-2.5 mm, 7-14-seeded; style 1-1.5 mm. Seeds in 2 rows, ca. 0.8 mm, smooth, with short thick elaiosome. Self-compatible.

Disturbed stony hillsides, roadside gravel, grassy slopes, mossy cliffs; 2500-4500 m. W Sichuan, SE Xizang (Zayü), Yunnan [N Myanmar].

There are two types: a summer annual and a biennial type. Individuals with a saccate lower petal have been called "var. microcalcarata" (see note below). They are encountered in both types and occur mixed with non-saccate plants.

Type A (Corydalis gracillima s.str.). Plants summer annual. Fl. Jul-Oct. Disturbed stony hillsides, roadside gravel, grassy slopes; 2500-4500 m. W Sichuan (very common), SE Xizang (Zayü), W Yunnan [N Myanmar].

Type B. Plants biennial. Fl. Mar-Apr. Mossy cliffs; 3000-3500 m. NW Yunnan (Dêqên, Zhongdian) [?N Myanmar].

"Corydalis gracillima var. microcalcarata H. Chuang" (Acta Bot. Yunnan. 13: 17. 1991) was not validly published because the species name to which it was assigned, "C. gracillima C. Y. Wu," was not at that time validly published (Vienna Code, Art. 43.1), having been proposed by Chuang and Su (in Fl. Xizang. 2: 319. 1985) but without a full and direct reference to the place of valid publication of the replaced synonym (Art. 33.4).