Cardamine violacea (D. Don) Wall. ex Hook. fil. & Thomson

Herbs perennial, 20-100 cm tall, shortly pilose or subglabrous. Rhizomes stout, to 1 cm in diam. Stems erect, simple, stout, glabrous. Basal leaves not seen. Middle cauline leaves sessile, strongly auriculate, sagittate, or amplexicaul at base; blade lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-20 × 0.7-3.5 cm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially puberulent or subpilose, margin ciliolate and dentate, denticulate, or entire, apex acuminate or caudate; auricles oblong or ovate, 2-10 × 2-7 mm. Racemes 5-25-flowered. Flowering pedicels spreading or reflexed; fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, 0.8-3 cm, glabrous, straight. Sepals oblong 5-7 × 1.5-3 mm, glabrous or sparsely pilose, base of lateral pair sacctae. Petals purple, spatulate or obovate, 1-1.7 cm × 4.5-7 mm. Median filament pairs 7-9 mm, lateral pair 6-7 mm; anthers oblong, 1.5-2 mm. Ovules 10-16 per ovary. Fruit linear, 2-6 cm × 1.4-2.5 mm; gynophore 0.5-1 mm; valves smooth, glabrous; style 3-8 mm. Seeds brown, oblong, 2-3 × 1.4-1.8 mm, wingless. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Himalaya (Nepal to Bhutan).

Yunnan [Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim].

2500-3600 m

Grassy slopes, streamsides, open forests, pastures, thickets, roadside banks, sandy moist forests, forest ravines; 1800-4000 m.

Erysimum violaceum D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 202. 1825; Cardamine violacea subsp. bhutanica Grierson.