假髯萼紫堇 jia ran e zi jin

Herbs, perennial, 12-35 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome 1-5 cm, with many thick soft roots and apical leaf rosette; remnants of previous year’s petiolar bases not prominent. Stems 1-8, erect (at lower elevations) to ascending, simple, with (1-)3(-6) scattered leaves (1 leaf usually at base of stem, similar to radical leaves). Radical (and lowermost cauline) leaves: petiole 4-15 cm with short fleshy-vaginate base; blade glaucous on both surfaces, orbicular, 2-3 × 3-5 cm, ternate to biternate (rarely triternate); leaflets shortly petiolulate (2-6 mm), broadly obovate to obtriangular to suborbicular, deeply 3-fid; segment shallowly 2-4-fid at apex, ultimate lobes obtuse, mucronate. Cauline leaves (except lowermost) sessile to shortly stalked, 1-3 × 2-5 cm, progressively smaller upward, ternate to ternatisect with leaflets shallowly cut into broad obovate obtuse lobes with small dark mucro. Raceme very dense, capitate, 3-4 cm, elongating in fruit to 6-9 cm, 9-15-flowered; lower bract broadly palmatipartite, 10-20 mm, middle broadly obovate, entire to coarsely divided, 5-13 mm, upper entire. Pedicel ca. 10 mm in flower, 15-20 mm in fruit, erect. Sepals white, 2-3.5 × 1-2 mm, deeply lacerate-dentate. Corolla clear azure blue to purplish blue with whitish clouds; inner petals darker at apex, sometimes white at very tip; outer petals with rather broad entire to dentate limb, dorsal crest 2-2.5 mm wide, entire to dentate, overtopping apex, sometimes decurrent on spur; upper petal broadly subacute, 23-26 mm; spur straight or slightly downcurved, cylindric, 10-12 mm, broad; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal 14-16 mm, claw broad, broadly and conspicuously saccate, limb rounded, ca. 8 mm wide; inner petals 11-13 mm. Stigma slightly emarginate; marginal simple papillae: median 2 distinct, lateral diffuse or confluent; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Capsule broadly elliptic to obovoid, 9-11 × 4-5 mm, 7-14-seeded; style ca. 3.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Disturbed gravelly slopes, bare patches on wet alpine meadow slopes, scree; 3800-4100 m. N Sichuan (Balang Shan, Niutou Shan).