块节凤仙花 kuai jie feng xian hua

Plants annual, 20-40 cm tall. Stem erect, basally procumbent, slender, laxly white tomentose in upper part, nodes swollen, with globose tuber and adventitious roots. Leaves alternate; petiole 0.3-2 cm; leaf blade ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-6 × 1.5-2.5 cm, spinose on veins, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, base cuneate, margin coarsely serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, 1-flowered; peduncles 4-5 cm. Pedicels bracteate at base (but appears as though above middle); bracts narrowly lanceolate. Flower red, medium-sized, ca. 3 cm deep. Lateral sepals 2, elliptic, ca. 5 mm, apex rostellate. Lower sepal funnelform, ca. 2.5 cm deep, narrowed into a curved, slender spur ca. as long as limb. Upper petal orbicular or obovate, apex mucronulate, abaxial midvein carinate; lateral united petals 2-lobed; basal lobes orbicular, apex obtuse; distal lobes dolabriform, apex rounded. Anthers acute. Capsule striate, linear. Seeds brown, subglobose, ca. 3 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Forest understories, along canals, moist places; 900-2000 m. Chongqing (Nanchuan), Guizhou.