青海苜蓿 qing hai mu xu

Kamiella archiducis-nicolaii (Širjaev) Vassilczenko; Meli­lotoides archiducis-nicolaii (Širjaev) Yakovlev.

Perennial herbs, 8-20 cm. Stems prostrate or ascending, slender, ridged, much branched, sparsely hairy. Stipules hastate, 4-7(-10) mm, veins obvious, margin dentate, apex narrowly triangular; petiole 4-12 mm; leaflets broadly ovate to orbicular, 6-18 × 6-12 mm, papery, puberulent abaxially, glabrescent adaxially, lateral veins 6-10 pairs, base rounded, margin ob­scurely irregularly denticulate, apex truncate or retuse, apical leaflet and petiolule longest. Flowers 4 or 5, scattered in axil­lary umbels; peduncle slightly longer than subtending leaf; bracts ca. 1 mm; pedicels slender, 2-5(-7) mm. Corolla yellow-orange, with central mauve spot, 7-9(-10) mm; standard obo­vate-elliptic, retuse. Ovary linear, glabrous; ovules 7-9(-13). Legume oblong-semilunar, 10-15(-18) × 4-6 mm, flat, veins crosswise reticulate, black when ripe, apex shortly beaked. Seeds 5-7, brown, broadly ovoid, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

● Alpine slopes, valleys, grasslands; (2500-)3000-4000 m. Gan­su, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, NE Xizang.