1	Perennial herbs or subshrubs, often hemispheric; stems usually basally woody, virgate, repeatedly divaricately branched; basal leaves early deciduous; stem leaves linear to filiform and small, or larger and spreading		(2)
+	Perennial herbs, never hemispheric; stems herbaceous, unbranched or rather weakly branched; basal leaves usually present; stem leaves present or absent, of various shapes		(3)
2 (1)	Caudex with scarious leaf sheath residues; stem leaves inconspicuous, to 10 mm; capitula with 4 or 5 florets.		1 S. divaricata
+	Caudex with fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues; stem leaves conspicuous, horizontally spreading to spreading-erect, 1-9 cm; capitula with 7-12 florets.		2 S. pseudodivaricata
3 (1)	Caudex with conspicuous dark brown fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues		(4)
+	Caudex with smooth, usually scarious, rarely with age lacerate or somewhat fibrous but never dark brown fibrous leaf sheath residues, or without leaf sheath residues		(9)
4 (3)	Leaves filiform to filiform-linear, 1-1.5 mm wide, almost somewhat curled, glaucous.		10 S. curvata
+	Leaves not filiform to filiform-linear, 2 mm or more wide, ± straight, green		(5)
5 (4)	Ovary and achene shortly villous along their entire length		(6)
+	Ovary and achene glabrous		(7)
6 (5)	Leaves 2-15 mm wide, margin undulate; plants glabrous; achene ca. 10 mm.		11 S. ikonnikovii
+	Leaves 3-4 mm wide, margin flat; leaves, stems, and phyllaries floccose or lanate when young, soon glabrescent; achene 7-8 mm.		12 S. manshurica
7 (5)	Stem (especially apically) and involucre basally floccose arachnoid hairy; leaves 2-4 mm wide.		9 S. subacaulis
+	Plants usually glabrous (occasionally leaf sheath margin or apical phyllary margin arachnoid hairy); leaves sometimes as narrow as 2 mm wide, otherwise 0.5-3(-4.5) cm wide		(8)
8 (7)	Basal leaves often rather narrow (linear, linear-lanceolate, or linear-elliptic), margin usually flat.		7 S. austriaca
+	Basal leaves often rather broad (broadly ovate, ovate-lanceolate, oblanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, linear-elliptic, or linear), margin undulate.		8 S. sinensis
9 (3)	Ovary and achene densely villous along their entire length		(10)
+	Ovary and achene glabrous or at most ± villous at pappus disk		(12)
10 (9)	Leaves usually 0.8-1.5 cm wide, leaf blade margin densely undulate; plants with globose tuber some cm below surface.		24 S. circumflexa
+	Leaves usually 2-8 mm wide, leaf blade margin flat; plants with or without globose tuber		(11)
11 (10)	Plants without tuber, to 40 cm tall; pappus 2-2.5 cm.		22 S. ensifolia
+	Plants with tuber some cm below surface, to 20 cm tall; pappus less than 1.5 cm.		23 S. sericeolanata
12 (9)	Stems leafless, sparsely leaved, or with reduced leaves, with 1 or few single-capitellate branches, or plants subacaulescent		(13)
+	Stems leafy, well developed, and usually branched at least basally		(16)
13 (12)	Caudex conspicuously dirty white lanate of adaxially thickly lanate leaf sheath residues; leaves broadly lanceolate to ovate, at least in part usually more than 2 cm wide.		3 S. capito
+	Caudex not lanate, leaf sheaths adaxially glabrous; leaves at most ca. 1.5 cm wide		(14)
14 (13)	Involucre, base of involucre, and sometimes leaves somewhat arachnoid hairy; florets ca. 2 × as long as involucre.		6 S. radiata
+	Plants entirely glabrous; florets less than 1.5 × as long as involucre		(15)
15 (14)	Leaves lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic to linear, 2-15 mm wide.		4 S. parviflora
+	Leaves linear, 1-2 mm wide.		5 S. luntaiensis
16 (12)	Plants of saline soil, glabrous (but leaf sheaths adaxially often lanate) and grayish to glaucous green; leaves ± fleshy, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate; stem leaves often partly opposite.		21 S. mongolica
+	Plants not of saline soil, glabrous and fresh green or with indumentum; leaves not fleshy, variously shaped; stem leaves always alternate		(17)
17 (16)	Plants with tuber some cm below surface, to 20(-40) cm tall; leaves 1-3 mm wide		(18)
+	Plants without tuber, taller than above; leaves usually wider than above		(20)
18 (17)	Plants 30-40 cm tall; involucre 2-2.4 cm at anthesis.		20 S. aniana
+	Plants to 20 cm tall; involucre 1.3-1.8 cm at anthesis		(19)
19 (18)	Caudex with adaxially lanate leaf sheath residues; involucre ca. 1.8 cm at anthesis; pappus bristles plumose for most of length.		18 S. pusilla
+	Caudex with glabrous leaf sheath residues; involucre 1.3-1.5 cm at anthesis; pappus bristles scabrid for most of length.		19 S. pamirica
20 (17)	Involucre from at least 2 cm at anthesis, to 4 cm in fruit; achene 1.7-2.3 cm, apically conspicuously long attenuate; pappus caducous as an entity.		13 S. albicaulis
+	Involucre to 2 cm at anthesis, not more than ca. 3 cm in fruit; achene not more than 1.5 cm, apically not conspicuously attenuate; pappus persistent		(21)
21 (20)	Florets slightly longer than involucre; plants entirely glabrous; achene 7-9 mm.		4 S. parviflora
+	Florets distinctly longer than involucre (usually ca. 1.5 × as long as involucre); stem, leaves, or involucre with short branched, dendritic or stellate hairs; achene 1-1.5 cm		(22)
22 (21)	Plants with weak, ascending-erect stems to at most 30 cm tall, usually branched already near base; achene with tuberculate ribs		(23)
+	Plants with strong erect stems to 75 cm tall, usually branched apically; achene with smooth ribs		(24)
23 (22)	Plants with conspicuous gray indumentum; leaves linear, 1-5 mm wide, with flat margin.		16 S. pubescens
+	Plants stellate puberulent, glabrescent; leaves narrowly lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 4-7 mm wide, with mostly undulate margin.		17 S. inconspicua
24 (22)	Florets yellow.		14 S. iliensis
+	Florets deep orange.		15 S. transiliensis