拉萨黄堇 la sa huang jin

Corydalis meifolia Wallich var. ecristata C. Y. Wu & Z. Y. Su in C. Y. Wu, Fl. Xizang. 2: 312. 1985.

Herbs, perennial, 20-30 cm tall, glaucous. Rhizome (mostly unknown) at apex with lax rosette of leaves and few flowering stems. Stems 20-30 cm, slender, simple (rarely branched?), with 1 or 2 leaves above. Basal leaves with vaginate petiole 5-8 cm; blade narrowly obovate-oblong, 8-15 × 1.5-3 cm, ± pruinose, bi- to tripinnate with 5-7 pairs of widely spaced alternate, shortly stalked to sessile primary leaflets; secondary leaflets closely spaced, deeply divided into several lobes; lobes lanceolate, small and narrow, 2-3 × ca. 1 mm, acute. Cauline leaves broadly vaginate, shortly stalked, much smaller and less divided than radical leaves. Racemes ca. 10-flowered, dense, corymbose in flower, much elongated at fruiting; bracts leaflike, lower ones to 3 × 1 cm, broadly petiolate, bipinnately divided; upper ones smaller, cuneate-pinnate or palmatisect. Pedicel slender, ca. 15 mm in flower, elongating to 20-30 mm at fruiting. Sepals ca. 0.5 × 1 mm, dentate. Flowers dirty yellow; keels of outer petals purplish; upper petal 11-12 mm, with narrow crest; spur conical-obtuse, ca. 4 mm; nectary small (1 mm) or absent; lower petal navicular; inner petals ca. 7 mm. Stigma square, apex with 4 papillae, laterally with 2 inconspicuous papillae, basally with papillate lobes. Capsule (immature) obovoid, 3-4 × ca. 2 mm, 4-seeded, with papillate lines; style ca. 3 mm.

● Alpine grasslands; ca. 4800 m. C Xizang (Lhasa).

The type specimens give the impression of a shade-grown plant.