山牛蒡属 shan niu bang shu

Authors: Zhu Shi & Werner Greuter

Herbs, perennial. Leaves heart-shaped to triangular-sagittate, undivided or sometimes pinnately divided, margin toothed or merely spinulose denticulate. Capitula large, nodding. Involucre globose. Phyllaries imbricate, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, rigid, apex long acuminate. Receptacle with long bristles. Corolla purple. Stamen filaments glabrous; anther with long, strongly lacerate basal appendages laterally fused into a tubular sheath enclosing distal part of filament. Style branches short. Achene obovoid, laterally compressed, longitudinally striate but otherwise smooth; apical rim forming a crenulate crown; apical plate with a low central pyramidal non-oleaginous body crowned by a cupular disk. Pappus of 3 or 4 rows of scabrid bristles, outer ones less than 1/2 as long as inner ones.

One species: China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia.

Lower Taxon

• Synurus deltoides (Aiton) Nakai