蒙自木蓝 meng zi mu lan

Indigofera mairei Pampanini var. micrantha Pampanini; I. vaniotii H. Léveillé.

Shrubs, 0.5-2 m tall. Stems purplish brown, terete; young branches grayish brown, angular, with dense appressed white and brown medifixed symmetrically 2-branched trichomes, glabrescent. Stipules linear, ca. 3 mm. Leaves 3-9 cm, 11-21-foliolate; petiole and rachis adaxially depressed, with appressed medifixed trichomes; petiole 1.5-2 cm; stipels ca. 0.5 mm; petiolules ca. 1 mm; leaflet blades opposite, narrowly oblong, oblong, or elliptic-oblong, 5-13 × 3-6 mm, papery, abaxially pale green and with sparse appressed medifixed trichomes, adaxially green and glabrous, midvein adaxially impressed, secondary veins not visible, base rounded, cuneate, or broadly cuneate, apex obtuse-rounded and mucronate. Racemes 3-4 cm, shorter than leaves, many flowered; peduncle 3-8 mm, sparsely hairy; rachis with reddish brown glands; bracts linear, 1-1.5 mm, caducous, abaxially with appressed medifixed tri­chomes. Pedicel ca. 1 mm, hairy, deflexed in fruit. Calyx out­side with sparse appressed medifixed trichomes; tube 1-1.5 mm; teeth triangular, 1-2 mm. Corolla purplish blue; standard broadly elliptic, ca. 6.5 × 4 mm, outside hairy; wings ca. 6.5 × 2 mm; keel ca. 6.5 mm, spur ca. 0.5 mm. Stamens 5-5.5 mm; anthers globose, base hairy. Ovary glabrous, with 7 or 8 ovules. Legume linear, cylindric, ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous or with sparse appressed medifixed trichomes; endocarp purple blotched. Seeds 6 or 7 per legume, 2.5-3 × ca. 2 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Grassland slopes in dry sunny valleys, trailsides in scrub; 1400-2100 m. SW Sichuan, Yunnan.