木里凤仙花 mu li feng xian hua

Plants annual, 50-60 cm tall, glabrous. Stem succulent, simple, rarely branched in upper part, lower nodes swollen, with many fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, petiolate in lower and middle parts of stem; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-7 × 1.5-3 cm, membranous, glabrous, lateral veins 3-5 pairs, base cuneate, margin coarsely crenate, teeth mucronulate, apex shortly caudate. Inflorescences solitary in upper leaf axils, usually (1 or)2-flowered; peduncles often shorter than leaves. Pedicels 5-10 mm, slender, slightly elongate after anthesis, bracteate below flower; bracts persistent, green, ovate, 1.5-2 mm, 3-veined, apex acute and curved. Flowers yellowish, large, 3-3.5 cm. Lateral sepals 2, ovate, thin and hyaline margined, ca. 6 × 3 mm, apex rostellate, slightly recurved, abaxial midvein thickened, narrowly carinate. Lower sepal funnelform, 3.5-4 cm deep, gradually narrowed into a 2-fid, spotted spur; mouth subvertical, ca. 1.5 cm wide, tip acute. Upper petal saccate, purple-red spotted, elliptic, 1.2-1.3 cm × ca. 6 mm, apex mucronulate, abaxial midvein broadly cristate; lateral united petals clawed, ca. 3 × 1.4 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes falcate, curved upward and spreading, purple-red spotted; distal lobes suborbicular-obovate, apex rounded; auricle inflexed, narrow. Filaments linear, ca. 5 mm; anthers ovoid, apex obtuse. Ovary erect, fusiform, ca. 5 mm. Capsule linear-cylindric, ca. 3 cm. Seeds many, yellow-brown, oblong, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, 1-costate. Fl. Sep.

● Grasslands by streams; ca. 3500 m. Sichuan (Muli).