双角凤仙花 shuang jiao feng xian hua

Plants annual, to 1 m tall. Stem robust, succulent, glabrous, branched. Leaves alternate, crowded at upper part; petiole (0.5-)2-7 cm, with globose glands at base; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 7-15(-20) × 4-6.5 cm, membranous, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely pilose, setose at base, lateral veins 10-12 pairs, base cuneate, margin coarsely crenate, apex caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences crowded in leaf axils, racemose, many flowered; peduncles erect, to 25 cm. Pedicels fascicled or verticillate, 1.5-2.5 cm, slender, bracteate at base; bracts ovate, with conspicuous aristate glands at apex. Flowers pale blue-purple, 1.5-2.8 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, obliquely ovate, small, 4-6 mm, with aristate glands at apex. Lower sepal purple spotted, broadly sigmoid-curved-saccate, 1.5-2 cm, 2-2.5 cm deep (excluding spur), abruptly constricted into a hooked or incurved spur; mouth cornute. Upper petal cucullate, suborbicular, 1-1.2 cm × 1.4-1.6 cm, apex mucronulate; lateral united petals not clawed, 3.2-4 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes ovate to suborbicular, 1.1-1.3 × 0.7-0.9 cm, apex truncate to rounded; distal lobes narrowly caudate, 2-2.7 × 0.6-0.7 cm, apex long tailed, acute; auricle inflexed, small. Anthers obtuse. Capsule cylindric. Seeds 8 or 9, subcylindric, shiny. Fl. Jun-Aug. 2n = 18.

Understories of Tsuga forests, grasslands by water; 2400-2800 m. S Xizang [N India, Nepal].