卵叶紫菀 luan ye zi wan

Herbs, perennial, 40-100 cm tall. Stems sparsely branched, tomentose above. Leaves: basal leaves withered at anthesis; cauline leaves crowded, sessile or shortly petiolate (petiole ca. 2 mm), adaxially pale green, ovate, 3.5-5.5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, slightly papery, both surfaces hispidulous, abaxially gland-dotted, base rounded, margin subentire or sparsely serrate at middle part, basally 3-veined, apex acute; upper leaves smaller, few near synflorescence, 0.8-1.5 cm. Capitula numerous, in paniculate-corymbiform synflorescences, 0.6-1.5 cm in diam.; peduncles 0.5-1.6 cm, erect or spreading, ± strict, densely pubescent, sometimes with a bract ca. 1 mm. Involucres campanulate, 6-7 × ca. 7 mm; phyllaries 4- or 5-seriate, ?unequal, oblong-lanceolate, margin entire, ciliate, apex brown, obtuse to rounded; outer phyllaries 1.5-2 mm; inner phyllaries gradually longer, 4-4.5 mm. Ray florets white, tube ca. 3 mm, lamina 7-8 × ca. 1.5 mm; disk florets yellow, 4-4.5 mm, tube ca. 2.5 mm, limb ca. 2.8 mm. Achenes oblong, slightly compressed, ca. 2 × 0.8 mm, strigose, 4-6-ribbed. Pappus dirty white or reddish brown, of unequal bristles ca. 4.5 mm. Fl. Aug.

● Sea level to low elevations. Taiwan.

No specimens of Aster ovalifolius were seen by us. The description is partly based on the treatment by Soejima and C. I Peng (Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 4: 859-861. 1998).