瑞香缬草 rui xiang xie cao

Plants 15-40 cm tall. Rhizomes reduced; roots 3-6, fascicled, 1.5-2 mm in diam. Stolons rarely present. Stems solitary, erect, simple, sparsely puberulent. Lowermost cauline leaves long petiolate; blade orbicular to broadly elliptic, 1-2 × 1-1.5 cm, undivided, entire or sparsely and irregularly serrate apically. Middle and upper cauline leaves petiolate to subsessile; blade ovate, 1.5-2 × 0.8-1 cm, pinnatifid; segments 3-7, glabrous or hispidulous on veins abaxially, margin irregularly serrate; terminal segment rhombic or elliptic, 1-1.2 × 0.4-0.6 cm; lateral segments smaller, linear-elliptic to linear. Inflorescence capitate at anthesis, 1.5-2.5 cm in diam., becoming lax and ca. 5 cm in diam. in fruit; bracts linear; bracteoles linear, subequal to achenes in length. Corolla rose or pink, tubular, 4.5-6 × ca. 1 mm; lobes ca. 1 mm. Stamens and style exserted. Achenes ovoid-ellipsoid, 1.5-2 × ca. 1 mm, glabrous or sparsely villous. Fl. (late Jul-)Aug, fr. Sep.

● Grassy slopes; 2600-3000(-4500) m. SW Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan (Binchuan, Lijiang).