Duthie & Prain ex Prain
Description
Corydalis casimiriana is a Himalayan herb distributed across the western and central ranges, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, southern China and Bhutan (gbif_countries: IN, NP, PK, CN, BT), with some 192 GBIF occurrences. It occupies moist temperate to subalpine habitats, including shaded forest floors, mossy banks, boulder slopes and the margins of streams, where cool, humid conditions persist through the growing season. The illustrated collection comes from Shertoli in Garhwal, India, at about 3100 m in September, capturing the species in late-season flower as the monsoon recedes from the western Himalayan hills.
The plant is a slender, often glaucous annual or short-lived herb arising from a fine root system, with erect to ascending, somewhat brittle stems. The leaves are alternate and two- to three-times pinnately or ternately divided into small, narrow to obovate segments, giving a delicate, ferny aspect. The flowers are borne in terminal racemes and are markedly zygomorphic, each with four petals of which the upper bears a backward-projecting spur; the corolla is typically blue to purplish, sometimes paler. The fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule splitting to release small, shining seeds often bearing an elaiosome that promotes ant dispersal.
Corydalis is one of the largest genera in the fumitory alliance of Papaveraceae, exceptionally diverse in the Sino-Himalaya, and C. casimiriana belongs to its assemblage of slender, blue-flowered montane herbs. The genus is taxonomically complex, with many narrowly defined species, and accurate determination relies on flower and fruit detail. Widespread across the western and central Himalaya, the species is of no particular conservation concern.
Author: Duthie & Prain ex Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lidén & Zetterlund monograph of Corydalis