石渠黄堇 shi qu huang jin

Herbs, perennial, glaucous, 18-70 cm tall, glabrous; stems and petioles of radical leaves attenuate to filiform underground base. Storage roots narrowly oblong, tapering to indistinct stalk. Radical leaf: petiole ca. 8 cm; blade triangular, ca. 5 × 5 cm, ternate with leaflets deeply tripartite into linear lobes. Stem sparingly branched, with 2-4 leaves. Cauline leaves shortly stalked, pinnate with 1-3 pairs of leaflets, lowermost leaflets sometimes divided; leaflets narrowly lanceolate to linear, 20-65 × 2-7 mm, with 3 parallel abaxially raised veins. Racemes 10-29-flowered, dense at first, soon elongating to 10-15 cm in fruit; bracts usually with short stalk, entire or rarely lowermost with a tooth or lobe, narrowly lanceolate, 5-13 mm. Pedicel 6-10 mm, strongly recurved in fruit. Sepals orbicular, 0.2-1 × 0.2-1.5 mm, dentate. Corolla pale yellow, with greenish keels; veins not obvious; outer petals 14-15 mm, shortly and broadly crested, crest overtopping apex; spur downcurved, 5-8 mm, tapering toward apex, slender; nectary ca. 1/2 as long as spur; lower petal obovate, 7(-8) mm, gradually narrowed to base, apically with short high entire to often apically dentate crest; inner petals ca. 7 mm, claw slightly shorter than limb. Stigma square, with 6 marginal indistinct papillae; geminate papillae sublateral and on distinct basal lobes. Capsule oblong, ca. 9 × 2 mm; smooth or usually finely papillose on veins, 2-5-seeded; style 2.5-3 mm. Seeds rounded, ca. 1.9 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

● Among shrubs, in moss in open forests; 3500-4000 m. SE Qinghai (Yushu), NW Sichuan (Sêrxü).