九龙凤仙花 jiu long feng xian hua

Plants annual, ca. 50 cm tall. Stem striate when dry, branched. Leaves alternate, petiolate; leaf blade narrowly oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 3-8 × (0.8-)1-2 cm, rigidly papery, with 2 pairs of ciliate stipitate basal glands, lateral veins 9-11 pairs, base rounded or subcordate, rarely broadly cuneate, margin densely sharply serrate, apex caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, (1 or)2-flowered; peduncles shorter than leaves. Pedicels bracteate often below flower; bracts persistent, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 4-6 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers yellow, large, to 3 cm deep, 1.8-2 cm wide. Lateral sepals 4, thinly membranous; outer 2: ovate or obliquely ovate, 8-9 mm, nearly inequilateral, 5-7-veined, base rounded, apex green and long cuspidate; inner 2: falcate-oblanceolate, very small, 6-7 mm, 1-veined, apex acuminate. Lower sepal slightly curved, saccate, ca. 2 cm deep, abruptly narrowed into a 2-fid, short spur 5-6 mm. Upper petal orbicular, 1.2-1.3 cm, apex emarginate, slightly curved rostellate, abaxial midvein carinate at middle; lateral united petals ± clawed, ca. 1.5 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes orbicular; distal lobes broadly dolabriform, ca. 3 × as long as basal lobes; auricle absent. Filaments linear; anthers obtuse. Ovary fusiform. Capsule linear, 3-3.2 cm. Seeds 7, brown, oblong, ca. 3 mm, rugose. Fl. Sep-Oct.

● Dense forests; ca. 2700 m. SW Sichuan (Jiulong).