画笔菊 hua bi ju

Plants 5-10 cm tall. Stems few branched from base, branches prostrate in lower part, upper part ascending, white villous. Middle stem leaves: petiole ca. 0.5 mm; leaf blade broadly cuneate or suborbicular, 0.5-0.7 × ca. 1 cm, both surfaces densely villous, biternately pinnatisect or 2-pinnatisect; primary lateral segments 1-paired; ultimate segments linear or broadly linear, apex acute. Proximal and distal leaves small. Synflorescence a flat-topped terminal panicle. Capitula many or few. Involucres obovoid, 4-5 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 2 rows, abaxially densely villous, scarious margin dark, outer ones elliptic, 3-3.5 mm, inner ones spatulate or oblanceolate, ca. 3 mm. Florets yellow, apically pilose with erect straight hairs; marginal female florets 7 or 8, corolla ascidiform, ca. 2 mm, tapering above; disk florets 12, corolla tubular, ca. 2.5 mm. Achenes obovoid, ca. 1.8 mm, 5- or 6-ribbed. Pappus absent. Fl. and fr. Sep.

● Steep slopes; 4600-5000 m. Xizang (Nanmulin).