假獐耳紫堇 jia zhang er zi jin

Herbs, perennial. Tuber oblong, 20-30 × 3-5 mm, branched. Underground part of stem 2-5 cm, with 1 or 2 small scale leaves; aerial part 3-7 cm, branched, with 2-5 leaves. Petiole 3-7 cm with vaginate base; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, trifoliolate; leaflets sessile, broadly ovate to obovate, 5-15(-20) × 4-10 mm, fleshy, obtuse. Racemes terminal and axillary, densely 1-5-flowered; peduncle 3-5 cm, at fruiting recurved and slightly thickened, burying capsules at base of plant; bracts ovate to obovate, 3-5 × 1-3 mm. Pedicel erect, straight, 3-11 mm, slender. Flowers blue. Sepals rounded, 1-2 × 1-2 mm, finely dentate. Outer petals with narrow crest; upper petal 13-14 mm; spur straight, cylindric, 7-8 mm; nectary very thin, ca. 2/3 as long as spur; lower petal ca. 9 mm, with broad claw expanded into a broad limb ca. 5 mm, obtuse or usually abruptly narrowed into an acute tip, often slightly saccate at base; inner petals whitish with indigo apex, ca. 7 mm. Stigma with 4 prominent apical papillae and smaller lateral and basal papillae. Capsule obovoid, 5-7 × ca. 3 mm, ?possibly not explosively dehiscent, 7-10-seeded; style ca. 2 mm. Seeds compressed-orbicular, ca. 1.5 mm; caruncle small. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Alpine stony scree ("siliceous metamorphites"); 4500-5100 m. SE Xizang (Gyaca).