短茎柴胡 duan jing chai hu

Plants 2–10 cm, bluish gray-green, perennial. Root thickened at apex into woody caudex. Stem decumbent or ascending, branches flexuose, base densely clothed with remnant sheaths. Basal leaves numerous; petiole tinged purple; blade linear or narrowly oblanceolate, 2–5 × 0.1–0.4 cm, 3–5-nerved, thickly papery, apex acute. Cauline leaves sessile, clasping; blades shorter, slightly broader. Umbels 1–2.5 cm across; bracts 1–4, ovate-lanceolate, 4–9 × 1–2.5 mm, unequal; rays 3–6, 1.5–4 mm, unequal; bracteoles 5(–7), ovate, 4.5–5 × 1.2–2 mm, equaling or slightly exceeding umbellules, 3-nerved, apex apiculate, abaxially glaucous; umbellules 4–6 mm across, 10–15-flowered; pedicels ca. 1 mm. Petals yellow. Stylopodium low-conic, dark yellow. Fruit ovoid-ellipsoid, brown, 3.5–4 × 1.8–2.5 mm; ribs prominent; vittae 3(–4) in each furrow, 4 on commissure. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Scrub or grassland on sunny mountain slopes; 2300–3500 m. Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].