Viola delavayi Franch.

Herbs perennial. Rhizome short, stout, with numerous dark brown fibrous roots. Stems erect, 15-25 cm tall, slender, glabrous, usually simple, leafless in lower part. Basal leaf usually 1 or absent; petiole to 7 cm; leaf blade abaxially glaucous, adaxially green, ovate, 3-4 × ca. 3 cm, thickly papery, glabrous, abaxially sparsely villous at base, base cordate, margin repand-serrate, apex acuminate. Stipules lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, 0.5-1.3 mm, lower ones 1-3 × shorter than petiole, upper ones subequaling or exceeding petiole, herbaceous, margin entire or remotely and large toothed; cauline leaf petiole 0.5-1 cm, glabrous or rarely villous; cauline leaf blade smaller than those of basal leaves, broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, base shallowly cordate or truncate; upper leaf blade ovate-lanceolate. Flowers in leaf axils at top, yellow, long pedicellate; pedicels exceeding blades, 1.5-3 cm, 2-bracteolate near top; bracteoles linear. Sepals linear, ca. 5 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulous, apex acute, basal auricles very short, apex truncate. Upper petals obovate, ca. 1.2 cm, lateral ones 0.9-1 cm, anterior one broadly obovate, 8-9.5 mm, base purple striate; spur very short, only 0.5-1 mm, apex obtuse. Ovary ovoid, smooth, glabrous; styles slender in lower part, thickened in upper part; stigmas 2-lobed, lobes spreading, straight, broadly ovate, apex rounded. Capsule ovoid or nearly oblong, small, 3-4 mm, subequaling or slightly shorter than persistent sepals. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Oct.

Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.

● Forest margins on mountains, grassy slopes, moist places in stream valleys; 1800-2800 m.

Viola boissieui H. Léveillé & Maire; V. delavayi f. depauperata Diels; V. delavayi var. villosa W. Becker; V. impatiens H. Léveillé.