高山锦鸡儿 gao shan jin ji er

Caragana alpina Y. X. Liou.

Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Old branches dark brown to yel­lowish brown; current-year branchlets densely villous. Leaves pinnate, 6-foliolate; petiole and rachis 2.5-6 cm, persistent, densely villous when young; leaflet blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, 12-16 × 2-3 mm, villous on both surfaces, apex acute. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 3-4 mm, articulate basally. Calyx tube campanulate-tubular, ca. 8 mm. Corolla yellowish white but petal claws reddish, 2.4-2.5 cm; standard subor­bicular, both surfaces villous, claw ca. 1/2 as long as limb; wings with claw ca. 2/5 as long as limb, auricles 2, basal auricle slightly longer than claw, apical auricle triangular to dentiform; keel with claw slightly shorter than limb, auricle not prominent. Ovary densely villous. Legume 2-3 cm, densely villous. Fl. Jun, fl. Jul.

Rocky slopes of alpine mountains; 4600-5000 m. S Xizang [India (Sikkim), Nepal].

Treated as a synonym of Caragana jubata by Grierson and Long (Fl. Bhutan 1(3): 713. 1987), this species may just represent a high-elevation form of C. jubata.