洱源紫堇 er yuan zi jin

Corydalis chelidonium Fedde.

Herbs, perennial, 15-60 cm tall. Rhizome short, with apical leaf rosette, some roots slightly thickened. Stems 2-7 from below rosette, decumbent-ascending, ribbed, usually with late branches above, with 3 or 4(or 5) scattered stalked leaves. Rosette leaves: petiole 2-4 cm, base vaginate; blade 1-3 × 1-3 cm. Cauline leaves: lower petiole 3-7 cm, upper 1-2 cm; blade abaxially glaucous and often finely papillose, adaxially green or glaucous, broadly ovate, 2-5 × 2-6 cm, unequally biternate; primary leaflets petiolulate; ultimate leaflets sessile, deeply 2- or 3-divided, lobes shallowly 2-6 cut into rounded mucronulate teeth or lobules. Raceme (3-)7-13-flowered; lowermost bract 10-25 mm, like upper leaf but shortly stalked, middle biternatisect to flabellate-divided, uppermost oblanceolate, 4-10 mm, entire. Pedicel 5-10 mm, 10-20 mm in fruit, thin, erect, forming a right angle (90°) with lower petal. Sepals 1-1.5(-2) × 1(-2) mm, deeply and finely dentate. Corolla blue to purple (red?); outer petals acute to subobtuse, finely dentate or almost entire, without crest; upper petal (13-)16-20(-22) mm; spur straight or arcuately downcurved, cylindric, (6-)8-12(-13) mm; nectary 1/2-3/5 as long as spur; lower petal straight, 8-11 mm; inner petals 7-10 mm. Stigma square; simple marginal papillae: 2 median distinct, lateral broad, indistinct; geminate papillae lateral (submarginal) and in basal corners. Capsule reflexed from straight pedicel, linear, ca. 10 × 1 mm, ca. 10-seeded, explosively dehiscent; style ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

● Forest understories in limestone areas, meadows, bamboo tussocks; 2500-3500 m. N Yunnan.

A plant from Yungning (N Yunnan) has a very short curved spur, auriculate upper petal, and narrow leaf lobes. A plant from Lijiang differs in having large sepals and corolla (these extremes are accounted for in the description within parentheses).