美花黄堇 mei hua huang jin

Corydalis concinna C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang; C. megalantha C. Y. Wu; C. megalantha var. laevis C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang.

Herbs, perennial, 20-45 cm tall, glabrous or often sparsely papillose-pubescent at base; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots densely fascicled, spindle-shaped, 15-20 × 2-5 mm, sessile. Stems 1(or 2), simple, erect, stout, with 2 or 3 leaves in upper 1/2. Radical leaves like cauline leaves; petiole to 10 cm. Cauline leaves: petiole 0.5-2 cm; blade 3-9 × 4-10 cm, imparipinnate with 2 or 3 pairs of entire or rarely ternately divided pinnae; leaflets shortly stalked to sessile, lanceolate, 3-5(-8) cm × 3-14 mm, abaxially with raised parallel veins, entire; uppermost leaf often only ternately divided. Raceme 4-6 cm, at fruiting prolonged to 10 cm, 6-18-flowered; bracts with short 1-3 mm petiole, broadly ovate to lanceolate, 8-20(-30) × 3-10 mm, entire, acuminate, in fruit sharply reflexed. Pedicel 5-9 mm, in fruit recurved and 8-13 mm. Sepals minute, ca. 0.1 × 0.5 mm. Corolla pale yellow, with orange-yellow apex; upper petal 27-32 mm, with expanded margin, irregularly undulate, apex acuminate, abaxial crest entire to dentate, 1.5-2(-3) mm, overtopping apex, narrowly decurrent on spur; spur downcurved to strongly incurved (up to a semicircle and more), cylindric, 15-20 mm; nectary 1/3-1/2 as long as spur; lower petal 11-12 mm, limb rhombic-acuminate, central part contracted, claw broadly and conspicuously saccate, sometimes with a minute peglike extension at very base; inner petals 9-11 mm. Stigma square; median 2 apical papillae distinct, closely set, lateral marginal papillae broad, indistinct; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and on pronounced basal lobes. Capsule narrowly obovoid, 10-14 × 3-4 mm, 8-15-seeded (ovules ca. 25); style 3-4 mm. Seeds in 2 rows, ca. 1.5 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Open forests, meadows; 2700-3900 m. W Sichuan.