Polygala karensium Kurz

Shrubs 0.5-2 m tall. Young branchlets thin, pubescent, glabrescent. Petiole 2-2.5 cm, glabrous or shortly strigose; leaf blade green, linear-lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, rarely elliptic, 7-12(-18) × 1.5-4(-6) cm, membranous to thinly papery, abaxially glabrous, adaxially sparsely hispidulous, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, anastomosing near margin, veinlets indistinct, base attenuate to cuneate, rarely rounded, margin entire, sometimes slightly undulate, apex acuminate, mucronate. Racemes numerous, terminal or axillary, 4-5 cm, to 10 cm at fruiting, pubescent, glabrescent; bracteoles triangular, ca. 5 mm. Flowers dense, large, 2-2.5 cm. Sepals 5, unequal, caducous at anthesis; outer sepals 3, small, upper one inflexed, ca. 4 mm, apex obtuse; inner sepals 2, petaloid, obovate, large, 16-19 × ca. 5 mm, base attenuate, apex rounded. Petals 3, connate in lower 3/4, white with purple to pink, transparent; lateral petals oblong, 2-2.5 cm, apex truncate to rounded; keel cucullate, apex with appendages 2-fascicled, 2- or 3-lobed. Stamens 8; filaments 2-2.2 cm, lower 3/4 united, forming an open staminal sheath; anthers ovoid. Disk annular. Ovary obovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., winged; style 1.7- 1.8 cm, from base toward apex gradually broadening and curved, apex 2-labiate; stigma in labium. Capsule quadrangular-ellipsoidal or obcordate, 8-9 mm in diam., broadly winged, base with disk and scars of perianth, apex retuse, mucronate, wing 1.5-2 mm wide and ribbed. Seeds black, ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., tuberculate, pubescent; strophiole irregularly lobed, winged, translucent and projecting apically. Fl. Dec-Apr, fr. Mar-Jul.

Guangxi, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

Open forests or shrub forests on mountain slopes, damp forest soils, slopes on hills; 1000-2500 m.