Aconitum qinghaiense Kadota

Caudex carrot-shaped, 1--3 cm. Stem 10--30(--70) cm tall, simple, sparsely retrorse and appressed pubescent. Basal leaves 7--9, long petiolate; petiole 5--8 cm, glabrous, base sheathed; leaf blade orbicular-reniform, 3--4 × 3.5--5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, medially 5--9-lobed; lobes lobulate, margin orbicular dentate. Cauline leaves 2 or 3, usually shortly petiolate, smaller. Inflorescence terminal, 2--4-flowered; rachis and pedicels ± densely retrorse pubescent; bracts linear, or sometimes basal ones 3-fid. Pedicels 5--10 mm, with 2 bracteoles; bracteoles linear, ca. 5 mm. Sepals pale greenish white or sometimes bright blue-violet, abaxially pubescent; lower sepals broadly elliptic or elliptic-ovate; lateral sepals 1.7--1.8 cm long and wide; upper sepal navicular, ca. 2 cm wide, lower margin concave, ca. 1 cm high. Petals slightly curved, glabrous; limb ca. 5 mm; lip strongly reflexed, ca. 1 mm; spur cup-shaped. Stamens glabrous or sparsely pubescent; filaments 2-denticulate. Carpels 4 or 5, glabrous. Follicles unknown. Immature seeds smooth, not lamellate. Fl. Jul--Aug.

SW Gansu, SE Qinghai, SE Xizang.

* Grassy slopes, wet and alpine grasslands; 2700--3600 m.