Corydalis stricta - Erect Corydalis

Erect Corydalis is a distinctive, erect, stout perennial herb, usually clustered, 25-50 cm tall, with simple or sparsely branched, striped stem, much exceeding the radical leaves, apparently hairless, glaucous. Flowers are borne in upright racemes at branch-ends, usually dense and congested, simple, 20-30-flowered, 3-5 cm long, 2-4 cm broad. Bracts are membranous, 3-6 mm long, linear, about as long as the flower-stalk. Flowers are yellow, 1.2-1.5 cm long, including 2.5-4 mm long spur, swollen at base. Sepal are 2-4 mm long, ovate to lance-shaped, with fringed base. Upper petals are slender, abruptly semispherical near the tip and somewhat upcurved acsuminate or with a short sharp point tip, not dorsally winged. but margins slightly expanded and fringed; lower petal similar to the upper petal, slender, narrow below, not or hardly sac-like at base. Radical leaves are many, often congested, somewhat fleshy, 7-15 cm long, 2-4 cm broad, 2-3-pinnately cut, with leaf-stalk about as long as the blade; pinnae stalked to stalkless, in 3-5 lateral pairs and a at branch-ends one, 1.5-3 cm long, 1-1.5 cm broad, 3-4-lobed, each lobe again ternately lobuled; ultimate segments very variable, ovate-trangulate to linear-oblong, 3-6 mm long, 1-3 mm broad, pointed or minutely tapering, sometimes shortly with a short sharp point or fringed with hairs, stem leaves are few to many, similar but gradually becoming smaller upwards, stalkless to prominently stalked, with or without a sheathing base. Capsules are linear, 2-3 cm long, 2.5-3.5 mm broad, straight, often drooping on a somewhat thickened flower-stalk, style 2-3 mm long. Erect Corydalis is found in SW Siberia to W & Central China and Himalaya, at altitudes of 4100-5400 m. It is known from Ladakh, Nepal, Tibet among other regions. Flowering: May-July.