黄药 huang yao

Dicentra macrantha Oliver, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 20: t. 1937. 1890.

Herbs, perennial, erect, 0.6-1.5 m tall, glabrous. Rhizome horizontal, long, slender. Stems rather stiff, leafless at base, branched above, with 2-4 alternate leaves, swollen at nodes. Petioles of radical leaves 10-50 cm, of cauline leaves 5-15 cm; blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, broadly triangular, 10-20 cm, bi- to usually triternate to sub-tripinnate; primary petiolules 2-10 cm; leaflets discrete, ovate, 3-9 × 1.5-4 cm, regularly serrate. Inflorescences nutant, terminal and sometimes axillary, 3-14-flowered; bracts linear, 3-8 mm. Pedicel 1-2 cm. Sepals lanceolate, 10-22 × 2-5 mm, entire. Corolla ivory white or pale yellow, sometimes with a greenish tint, (4-)4.5-5 × 1-1.5 cm; outer petals slightly bent outward in apical 1/3, base not or very shallowly pouchlike, apex rather broad, acute. Stamens almost free, each triplet loosely cohering only just below an- thers; nectar secreted at base of central stamens. Style persistent, 7-10 mm; stigma oblong-pandurate, slightly 2-lobed at apex. Fruit narrowly elliptic, 5-7 × 0.5-0.8 cm including stiff persistent style, dehiscent, but keeping together below and above. Seeds numerous (to 100), slightly flattened, ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, smooth, with lobed elaiosome. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jul.

Woods, glades, also secondary and disturbed vegetation, humid but well-drained soils; 1500-2700 m. Guizhou, Hubei (Jianshi), S Sichuan, NE and NW Yunnan [N Myanmar].

This species is used medicinally and has several popular names: 黄药 huang yao (in Sichuan), 黄三七 huang san qi (in Yunnan), and 丁三七 ding san qi (in Zhaotong, Yunnan). The name 黄药 huang yao means "yellow medicine."