小花蓝盆花 xiao hua lan pen hua

Lomelosia olivieri (Coulter) Greuter & Burdet; Scabiosa olivieri var. longinvolucra Y. K. Yang, N. R. Cui & Y. Hazit; Trochocephalus olivieri (Coulter) A. Löve & D. Löve.

Herbs, annual, 10-38 cm tall. Taproots solitary, 40-50 × 3-4 mm. Stems terete, slender, branched from base and dichotomous from lower middle part, white puberulent. Leaves opposite, sessile; leaf blade oblong or linear-lanceolate, 20-50 × 3-10 mm, both surfaces densely villous, margin often entire, not segmented, or with 1 or 2 pairs of leaflets, sometimes pinnatifid. Peduncles 3-10 cm, slender, sparsely villous; capitula globose, 3-5 mm in diam. at anthesis, flowers 5-15, strongly dimorphic; involucral bracts 3-5, oblong-ovate or ovate-orbicular, 2-3 × 1.5-2 mm, shorter than flowers, rather densely villous, apex acuminate; involucels broadly funnelform, ca. 2 mm, base white hispidulous, upper half 8-pitted; crown spreading, 3-6 mm wide, membranous, with 20-24 ribs, outside sparsely villous along ribs. Calyx radially 5-setose, shortly stalked, brown, setae sometimes to 1 cm, 4-5 × as long as involucel crown. Corolla pale purple or white, outside puberulent. Achenes white hairy. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 18.

Sandy places, deserts of plains. N Xinjiang (Manas He basin, Ürümqi) [from E Mediterranean to C Asia and India].