小株紫堇 xiao zhu zi jin

Corydalis kareliniana Pritzel ex Walpers; C. tenella Karelin & Kirilov (1842), not Ledebour ex Nordmann (1837).

Herbs, perennial, glaucous, 6-15 cm (3-8 cm above scree surface), glabrous. Storage roots few, 5-15 × 2-3 mm, tapering to thin apex. Bulb prominent, 15-23 × 6-7 mm, of several pale fleshy scales. Stems slender, weak, simple, with 1 or 2 leaves in upper part. Radical leaves several, equaling or exceeding stems; petiole 3-10 cm; blade glaucous on both surfaces, often with small dark dots or streaks, ovate-triangular, 2-3.5 × 2-4 cm, slightly fleshy, ternate to biternate; leaflets stalked (petiolules 5-20 mm), deeply 2-7-divided; segments obovate, obtuse. Cauline leaves shortly stalked to subsessile; blade smaller than radical leaves but more divided. Raceme ca. 1 cm, 2-5-flowered; bracts oblong-spatulate, entire or lower ones deeply divided. Pedicel erect, slender, at fruiting 8-15 mm. Sepals 0.5-1 mm, deeply dentate. Petals white to pink (with a touch of yellow?); upper petal navicular, (13-)15-16 mm, subacute, crest ca. 1 mm wide, tapering to both ends, not reaching spur, rarely absent; spur downcurved at apex, (4-)7-9 mm, slightly tapering; nectary 1/2-2/3 as long as spur; lower petal 8-9 mm, distal 1/2 widened into rhombic limb, usually shortly crested; inner petals 7-8 mm. Stigma slightly emarginate, marginal apical papillae 4, sometimes diffuse; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Capsule pendent from erect pedicel, narrowly elliptic to obovoid, 10-13 × 3(-4) mm, 4-7-seeded. Seed 1.8-1.9 mm, smooth, with very small elaiosome. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

Alpine scree; 2500-4700 m. Xinjiang (?Altay, Kunlun Shan, Shawan, Ürümqi) [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, C and W Mongolia, Russia (Altay)].

A specimen (Liou 3043) from Ürümqi lacks crests on the outer petals and is similar to Corydalis phillippi Michajlova (Bot. Zhurn. 85: 182. 2000), described from SW Mongolia.