Corydalis is a genus of about 470 species of annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 and perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous plant

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 plants

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 in the fumewort family

Fumariaceae

Fumariaceae is a family of about 575 species of herbaceous plants in 20 genera, native to the Northern Hemisphere and South Africa.-Flower shape:Plants in the fumitory family are easily recognised by their peculiar flowers with two dissimilar pairs of...

 (sometimes included in the poppy family

Papaveraceae

Papaveraceae, informally known as the poppy family, are an economically important family of 44 genera and approximately 770 species of flowering plants in the order Ranunculales. The family is cosmopolitan, occurring in temperate and subtropical climates, but almost unknown in the tropics...

), native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 and the high mountains of tropical eastern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. They are most diverse in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

, with at least 357 species in China.

Corydalis species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 species (butterflies), especially of the genus Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne , source of the word mnemonic, was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus:* Calliope * Clio * Erato...

.

Corydalis cava and some other tuberous species contain the alkaloid bulbocapnine

Bulbocapnine

Bulbocapnine is an alkaloid found in Corydalis and Dicentra, herbs in the family Fumariaceae that can cause fatal poisoning in sheep and cattle...

, which is occasionally used in medicine.

Species

There are about 470 species, including:

Corydalis afghanica Corydalis aitchisonii Corydalis alpestris Corydalis ambigua Corydalis ambigua Corydalis ambigua is a tuberous early flowering east Asian flowering plant species. Its exact native range is obscure due to taxonomic confusion. It is one of the sources of the drug tetrahydropalmatine.-Medicinal uses:... Corydalis angustifolia Corydalis aqua-gelidae Corydalis arctica Corydalis aurea Corydalis aurea Corydalis aurea is a winter annual native to North America.Root is a branching caudex... Corydalis bracteata Corydalis buschii Corydalis caseana Corydalis caseana ssp. brandegei Corydalis cashmeriana Corydalis cava Corydalis chaerophylla Corydalis cheilanthifolia Corydalis cheilanthifolia Corydalis cheilanthifolia is a perennial growing from rhizomes, native to western and central China.-Description:Leaves are shaped like lipfern , for which the plant is named... Ferny Corydalis Corydalis chionophila Corydalis clavibracteata Corydalis conorhiza Corydalis cornuta Corydalis darwasica Corydalis diphylla Corydalis elata Corydalis emmanuelii Corydalis flavula Corydalis flavula Corydalis flavula is an annual plant native to the eastern United States.-External links:**... Corydalis flexuosa Corydalis flexuosa Corydalis flexuosa is a species of Corydalis, in the Fumariaceae family. It is a shade-loving perennial plant originating in woodland and mountainous areas in China.- Cultivation :... Corydalis gigantea Corydalis glaucescens Corydalis gortschakovii Corydalis integra Corydalis intermedia Corydalis kushiroensis Corydalis latiflora Corydalis lineariloba

Corydalis lydica Corydalis macrocentra Corydalis marschalliana Corydalis nariniana Corydalis nobilis Corydalis nobilis Corydalis nobilis is a winter annual native to Siberia and Kazakhistan. It was introduced to Europe by Linnaeus, who had asked his friend Erich Laxmann for seeds of Lamprocapnos spectabilis , but was sent seeds of C. nobilis instead... Corydalis ochotensis Corydalis ophiocarpa Corydalis oppositifolia Corydalis pallida Corydalis parnassica Corydalis pinnatibracteata Corydalis popovii Corydalis pumila Corydalis rupestris Corydalis rutifolia Corydalis saxicola Corydalis scouleri Scouler's Corydalis Corydalis seisumsiana Corydalis semenovii Corydalis shanginii Corydalis sibirica Corydalis solida Corydalis solida Corydalis solida is a spring ephemeral plant valued for its purple, red, or white flowers, native or introduced to central and eastern Europe.Height is 10-20 cm . Root is a tuber.-External links:* at Virtuella floran... Corydalis stenantha Corydalis tomentella Corydalis trilobipetala Corydalis turtschaninovii Corydalis vaginans Corydalis verticillaris Corydalis wendelboi Corydalis wilsonii Corydalis yanhusuo yan hu so Corydalis zeaensis

Former species

Several former Corydalis have been moved to new genera:
Pseudofumaria

• Corydalis lutea = Pseudofumaria lutea
  Yellow Corydalis
• Corydalis ochroleuca = Pseudofumaria alba

Capnoides

• Corydalis sempervirens = Capnoides sempervirens
  Capnoides sempervirens
  Capnoides sempervirens is an annual or biennial plant native to rocky woodland and burned or disturbed places in northern North America.-Description:...
  
  

External links

• Flora of China