小花紫堇 xiao hua zi jin

Corydalis kokiana Handel-Mazzetti var. micrantha C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang.

Herbs, perennial, 20-50 cm tall, glabrous; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots 30-50 × 2-3 mm, narrowed to indistinct stalk. Stems (3 or 4), slender, with long slender branches, with 2-4(or 5) leaves. Radical leaves: petiole 2-8 cm; blade broadly ovate to deltoid, 2-3 × 2-3 cm, biternate; ultimate leaflets coarsely dentate or cut to base into obovate to lanceolate segments. Cauline leaves sessile (lowermost sometimes stalked), triternate to bipinnate, 2-10 × 1.5-7 cm (lower ones larger, upper ones smaller), with long-stalked primary leaflets; ultimate leaflets ± deeply cut into oblanceolate mucronate lobes. Racemes 10-20-flowered, dense, much elongating in fruit; lower bracts 7-15 mm and irregularly biternatisect, upper ones progressively smaller and less divided upward. Pedicel thin, 6-11 mm in flower, elongating to 10-15 mm and erect in fruit. Sepals 0.5(-1) mm, dentate. Corolla blue; outer petals broadly obtuse with shallowly to deeply dentate margin, slightly to conspicuously mucronate; dorsal crest 0.2-0.6(-1.2) mm; upper petal 10-14 mm; spur downcurved at apex, cylindric, 4-6 mm; nectary 1/3-2/3 as long as spur, thin; lower petal 6-9 mm without distinct claw; inner petals 5-7 mm. Stigma square; marginal papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral broad, diffuse; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and on basal lobes. Capsule linear-lanceolate, 10-15(-19) × 1.5-2 mm, 5-9-seeded; style ca. 2 mm. Seeds ca. 1 mm, smooth, with small appressed elaiosome. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Subalpine conifer forests, among shrubs, grasslands; 3300-4500 m. W Sichuan, E Xizang.