南五台山紫堇 nan wu tai shan zi jin

Type: China. Shaanxi: Lingyingtai, Nansantai, under forest along valley, 22 May 1956, F. K. Fu & B. Z. Guo 10055 (holotype, WUK; isotype, WUK).

A Corydale virginea caulibus paucifoliatis non bulbilliferis, foliis majoribus atque foliolis non regulatim dentatis differt.

Paratypes: W. Y. Hsien 4556 (WUK); T. T. Liou 193 (WUK).

Herbs, perennial, 25-40 cm tall, glabrous. Rhizome short, with crowded small bulbous petiolar bases. Stems slender, with thin erect branches, with 2 or 3(or 4) leaves (if 2, confined to upper part). Radical leaves early withering; petiole 3-15 cm, thin; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, 1-4 × 1-4 cm, biternate; leaflets deeply cleft into oblanceolate lobes. Cauline leaves sessile, 4-8 × 3-5 cm, pinnate with 2 or 3 pairs of pinnae, terminal pinna large; basal pair of pinnae distant from next pair, long stalked in lower leaves (in upper leaves small and stipulelike), ternate; leaflets deeply serrate or cut into acute lobes. Racemes subspicate, 7-15-flowered, 3-9 cm; bracts broadly lanceolate, 7-15 mm, acute, entire (lowermost to 25 mm with a few large teeth). Pedicel erect-spreading, straight, 5-9 mm, thin. Sepals rounded, 3-4 × 3-4 mm, lacerate-dentate. Corolla white. Outer petals with short rounded crest 1.5-2 mm wide, conspicuously overtopping apex; upper petal 20-22 mm; spur straight to slightly downcurved, cylindric or slightly tapering, 11-13 mm, narrow; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal with a conspicuous pouch ca. 1/3 from base and a smaller pouch close to base; inner petals 8-9 mm. Stigma with 6 marginal simple papillae; geminate papillae lateral and on basal lobes. Immature capsule pendent from straight pedicel, obovoid, 7-8 mm; ovules 6 or 7; style ca. 4 mm. Fl. May.

● S Shaanxi (Hua Shan, Nansantai, Nanwutai Shan).

Corydalis nanwutaishanensis has flowers similar to those of C. virginea, but that species has numerous small regularly dentate leaves with axillary bulbils.

The specific epithet is based on one of the mountains, Nanwutai Shan, where this species is found.