蒙古短舌菊 meng gu duan she ju

Subshrubs, 5-20 cm tall; indumentum of simple or bifurcate hairs. Old branches gray, twisted; young branches appressed pubescent. Leaves sessile or subsessile, leaf blade obliquely elliptic or suborbicular, ca. 0.6 × 0.5 cm, grayish green or green, appressed pubescent, glabrescent, palmate-pinnate, 3-5-divided; segments linear-subulate. Uppermost stem leaves entire. Synflorescence an irregular flat-topped cyme. Capitula 3 or 4. Involucres obconical or campanulate, 4-6 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 4 rows, outer ones ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, scarious margin brownish, middle ones elliptic, ca. 6 mm, inner ones oblanceolate, ca. 5 mm. Ray florets ca. 8; lamina yellow, apex minutely 2-denticulate. Achenes ca. 2.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug.

Gobi Desert. Gansu, Xinjiang [Mongolia].