方氏淫羊藿 fang shi yin yang huo

Herbs, ca. 25 cm tall. Rhizome long creeping, slender, 1.5-2 mm in diam. Leaves basal and cauline, trifoliolate; leaflets adaxially pale green, narrowly ovate, 4-8 × 2.5-5.5 cm, leathery, abaxially glaucous, nearly glabrous except for scattered appressed minute hairs, adaxially glabrous, base moderately cordate with lobes rounded and separated by a narrow sinus, those of lateral leaflets moderately unequal, margin spinulose-serrulate, apex obtuse or nearly acute. Inflorescence simple, racemose, loosely 6-10-flowered, to 13 cm. Pedicel ca. 2 cm, glabrous. Flowers pale yellow, large, ca. 4.5 cm in diam. Outer sepals caducous, 2.5-3.5 mm; inner sepals spreading horizontally, reddish, cymbiform, ca. 6 × 2.5 mm, obtuse. Petals pale yellow, much longer than inner sepals; spur nearly straight and horizontally spreading, subulate, elongated, ca. 2.2 cm, expanded at base into a lamina ca. 1 cm high. Stamens included, ca. 3.5 mm; filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers pale yellow, ca. 2.5 mm, valved. Capsules unknown. Fl. Apr, fr. unknown.

● Forests; 1800-1900 m. Sichuan (Emei Shan).

A natural hybrid swarm (Epimedium ×omeiense Stearn, Bot. Mag., n.s., 12: 22. 1995) reportedly results when Epimedium fangii and E. acuminatum occur together (see also Stearn, Gen. Epimedium, 183. 2002).