中亚紫堇 zhong ya zi jin

Herbs, perennial, erect, glaucous, 30-60 cm tall, with taproot. Stems stout, ridged, hollow, leafy, branched. Lower cauline leaves shortly petiolate, 15-30 × 7-12 cm, upper ones nearly sessile, smaller; petiole with membranous margin; blade pale abaxially, green adaxially, narrowly ovate in outline, thin, bipinnate with 4-8 pairs of shortly stalked pinnae, each with 1-3 pairs of subsessile pinnules; ultimate leaflets broadly ovate to oblong, 1-2.5 cm, irregularly cleft into broad mucronate segments. Raceme cylindric to capitate, 3-7 cm, 20-40-flowered; bracts narrowly ovate to linear, slightly longer than pedicel, entire or with a few long teeth. Pedicel 3-5 mm, at fruiting downcurved. Sepals ovate, 2-3 × ca. 1 mm, margin ± toothed, apex long acuminate. Flowers nutant, pale yellow to nearly white. Outer petals with sharply set off mucro up to 2 mm, without crest, sometimes limb slightly crenate; upper petal ca. 15 mm; spur rounded, 3-4 mm; nectary short, ca. 1 mm; lower petal straight, 12-13 mm; inner petals 10-11 mm, crested, claw slightly shorter than limb, slender. Style long, slender, sharply bent below stigma. Capsule drooping, linear, 1.5-2 cm, slightly contorted, ?5-8-seeded. Seeds rounded, ca. 2 mm, smooth; caruncle absent. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Margins of Picea forests; 1500-3000 m. N Xinjiang (Tian Shan) [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan].