Phtheirospermum auratum Bonati, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 13: 105. 1921.

Herbs perennial, to 30 cm tall, not drying black. Stems often branched apically, herbaceous, striate, glabrescent. Leaves opposite or occasionally alternate; petiole to 4 cm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, ca. 7 cm, glabrous, pinnatisect; segments 5--7 pairs, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, pinnatipartite, incised-dentate. Flowers axillary, scattered; bracts leaflike. Pedicel short. Calyx usually tinged with red, 3.5--4 mm; lobes 5, triangular. Corolla yellow, ca. 1.3 cm, nearly 2 X as long as calyx; tube ca. as long as galea, ca. 4 mm in diam.; galea ± straight or slightly falcate, apex entire; lower lip 3--5 mm, much shorter than galea, middle lobe obovate, apex emarginate. Filaments slightly pubescent. Capsule obliquely triangular-lanceolate, to 0.9--1.1 cm, short apiculate. Fl. Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.

* Bamboo thickets, Pinus forests; 3300--3900 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.