臭黄堇 chou huang jin

Herbs, annual, 10-30(-50) cm, glabrous, with taproot. Stems several from base, ridged, branched, leafy. Basal leaves many, ca. 10 cm; petiole ca. equal to blade, base sheathed; blade ovate-oblong, bipinnate to tripinnate; pinnae 2-4 pairs, petiolulate; pinnules 1 or 2 pairs, sessile, deeply ternatisect into lanceolate-oblong mucronate segments, 2-6 × 1-2 mm. Racemes 3-13-flowered, at first dense, then distant, 5-10 cm; bracts ovate to lanceolate, slightly longer than pedicels. Pedicel ca. 3 mm. Corolla pale yellow to yellow. Sepals rounded, 1.5-2 mm, slightly and shallowly dentate. Outer petals subobtuse, slightly dentate, with short dentate crest not reaching apex; upper petal 15-19 mm, spur decurved, broadly saccate, 4-5 mm; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; inner petals 10-12 mm, dorsal crest only slightly overtopping apex. Stigma horizontally extended 2-armed, each 1/2 with 1 distinct apical forward-projecting papillae and diffuse terminal papillae (possibly 2 confluent). Capsule usually curved, linear, 19-23 × ca. 2 mm, 8-12-seeded. Seeds in 1 row, 1.5-1.6 mm, lenticular with linear impressions in concentric rows; caruncle large, membranous, folded back over seed. Fl. May-Jun, fr. May-Jul.

● River valleys; 2100-3100 m. Sichuan, NW Yunnan (Dêqên, Gongshan, Weixi).

This species is like Corydalis balansae in flower, but the foliage is rather different.