单瓣远志 dan ban yuan zhi

Polygala sibirica Linnaeus var. monopetala (Cambessèdes) Chodat.

Herbs perennial, 15-20 cm tall. Principal root curved, dark gray-brown, stout. Stems short, multibranched; branchlets slender, white and curved pubescent. Petiole very short, pubescent; leaf blade green, linear-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 1-1.8 × 0.3-0.4 cm, thickly papery, abaxially glabrous, adaxially curved pubescent, midvein raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, lateral veins obscure, base attenuate, margin entire, recurved, apex acuminate, mucronate. Racemes axillary or terminal, ca. 1.5 cm, pubescent, few flowered; basal bracts 3, lanceolate, unequal, shorter than pedicels. Sepals 5, persistent, ciliate; outer sepals 3, lanceolate, nearly equal, ca. 2 mm, abaxially pubescent; inner sepals 2, elliptic-oblong, ca. 4 × 2 mm, midvein green, margin nearly pellucid, apex acute. Petals 2, connate near base, purplish; lateral petal 1, elliptic, ca. 3.5 mm, inside pubescent at base; keel cucullate, ca. 4 mm, base cuneate, apex with 2 indistinct groups of small appendages. Stamens 6-8; filaments ca. 4 mm, forming an open staminal sheath split in upper 1/4 with 2 separate single filaments with anthers in middle, and on either side of these a united group of 2 or 3 filaments each carrying 2 or 3 sessile anthers at tip. Ovary obcordate-globose, ca. 1 mm in diam.; style curved, 2-2.5 mm; stigmas 2. Capsule orbicular, margin narrowly winged, ciliate, apex truncate and retuse, mucronate. Seeds black, ovoid, white pubescent, with 3-lobed strophiole, lateral lobes longer. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Forest margins on slopes of hills, grasslands; 3000-3800 m. Qinghai, SE Xizang [Kashmir].