Rochelia leiocarpa Ledeb.

Easily recognised by the shiny smooth nutlets.

Thin delicate plant 5-30 cm tall. Stem with few branches. Stem and bran¬ches greyish with appressed to erect hairs. Basal leaves oblanceolate to obovate, 8-15 x 2-3 mm, covered on both surfaces with short suberct hairs; midrib and upper cauline leaves narrower. Racemes secund, lax, in fruit up to 5 cm long; Bracts linear, pubescent. Fruiting pedicels deflexed, 2-3 mm long. Calyx pubescent with suberect hairs, lobes c. 1.5 mm long, lanceolate, up to 3 mm and incurved in fruit. Corolla pale blue, 2-2.5 mm long, campanulate; lobes obtuse, less than 0.8 mm long. Nutlets c. 2 mm long, smooth and shiny, yellowish-brown. Style slightly exserted above nutlets.

Herbs strigose. Stems usually single, erect, branched above, 3-6 cm tall. Basal leaves narrowly obovate to obovate, 3-7 mm; stem leaves linear, 5-10 mm. Pedicel 2-3 mm in fruit. Calyx lobes linear, ca. 2 mm, arcuate inward in fruit, crisped pubescent. Corolla light blue; tube shorter than limb; lobes suborbicular. Nutlets oblique ovoid, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent when young, yellowish white, shiny. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

Distribution: Soviet C. Asia, W. Siberia, Turkestan, Songaria, Pakistan and Kashmir.

Fl. Per.: May-June.

N Xinjiang [N India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].