米拉紫堇 mi la zi jin

Herbs, perennial, glaucous, fleshy, glabrous. Underground parts unknown. Stems ascending, 7-15 cm tall, simple, with 3 or 4 leaves. Lower cauline leaves triangular in outline, subsessile, ternately divided with rather long-stalked primary leaflets, these pinnate with 2 or 3 pairs of entire to bi- or trifid pinnae ca. 10 mm; central primary leaflet 35-40 mm, lateral leaflets 20-25 mm; ultimate leaf segments not or slightly overlapping, lanceolate to broadly oblanceolate, 2-4(-5) mm wide, acute; middle and upper cauline leaves sessile, smaller (ca. 20 mm and ca. 10 mm, respectively, in type), narrowly ovate in outline with basalmost pair of lateral leaflets sessile and short, hardly longer than second pair. Racemes dense, 10-30-flowered, to 4 cm in anthesis; lower bracts subpinnately divided to dentate, with lower lobes often again divided or dentate; upper bracts narrower, less divided or entire. Pedicels soon becoming slightly arcuately recurved, 6-8 mm, equaling bracts. Sepals whitish, to 1 mm, apically deeply divided into few long narrow teeth. Corolla pale to dark mauve, often more blue toward spur, with keels of outer petals darker; inner petals whitish at tip (except for inner hidden adaxial side, which has a dark purple blotch like most Corydalis); outer petals broadly crested, acute at apex, or lower one subobtuse; upper petal ca. 17 mm; spur slightly downcurved, ca. 8 mm, somewhat tapering toward obtuse tip; nectary ca. 5 mm; inner petals ca. 8 mm. Ovary with ca. 7 ovules; stigma almost squarish, with 4 apical papillae, laterally and on basal lobes with geminate papillae. Fruit and seeds unknown. Fl. Jul.

● Open ground, scree; 4800-5100 m. C Xizang (Mi La between Maizhokunggar and Gongbo’gyamda).

This species is possibly misplaced in this section; it will key out also in Corydalis sect. Trachycarpae.