草莓凤仙花 cao mei feng xian hua

Plants annual, 30-70 cm tall. Stem often purple, tetragonous or nearly terete, robust, succulent, simple or shortly branched, glabrous. Leaves opposite in lower part of stem, alternate in upper part of stem; petiole 0.3-3 cm, with globose glands at base; leaf blade lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-10(-12) × 1.5-4 cm, lateral veins 7-9 pairs, base cuneate, margin crenate-serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences in upper leaf axils, subcorymbose, 1-6-flowered; peduncles ca. as long as or slightly longer than leaves. Pedicels 0.5-1.7(-2) cm, apex often swollen, bracteate at base; bracts persistent, lanceolate, 5-6 mm, apex acuminate. Flowers purple or pale purple to light yellowish, 2-2.5 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, obliquely ovate, 6-7 mm, base subcordate, apex acuminate, shortly mucronulate. Lower sepal broadly funnelform, to 2.7 cm deep, narrowed into an incurved, slender spur. Upper petal cordate-ovate, apex obtuse or emarginate, mucronulate, abaxial midvein inconspicuously thickened; lateral united petals not clawed, ca. 2 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes subovate; distal lobes dolabriform. Anthers obtuse. Capsule oblong-linear, ca. 2 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

● Grasslands by rivers, moist places by canals, roadsides; 3100-3200 m. E Xizang.

The pale purple to pale yellow flowers of this species are similar to Impatiens sulcata, but the latter differs in that its lower sepal has an incurved, short spur.