粉苞菊 fen bao ju

Chondrilla piptocoma subsp. soongarica (Stscheglejew) Iljin; C. soongarica Stscheglejew.

Herbs 35-120 cm tall, perennial, ± broomlike. Stem basally erect-spreadingly and higher up divaricately branched; branches slender, densely arachnoid hairy to more rarely ± glabrous, ± leafy. Lower stem leaves narrowly oblanceolate, 3.5-7 cm × ca. 4 mm, early deciduous, margin runcinately pinnate or sparsely dentate. Middle and upper stem leaves linear to filiform, 4-6 cm × 0.5-1 mm, glabrous or arachnoid hairy, margin entire. Capitulum with 9-12 florets. Involucre 1-1.3 cm, ± densely arachnoid hairy. Phyllaries grayish to light green; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-ovate, longest ca. 2 mm; inner phyllaries 8. Achene body 3-5 mm, with ± quadrangular corona scales with margin weakly 3-lobed or entire, below corona without scales or with few very small toothlike scales; beak 0.8-1.5 mm, with fine articulation near its base below or slightly above upper edge of corona. Pappus 6-8 cm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 10.

Gravelly areas on floodplains; 600-3300 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, SC Russia].

According to Iljin (Bjull. Otdel. Kaučuk. 3: 36. 1930) and Leonova (Fl. URSS 29: 574. 1964) the achene body below the corona in Chondrilla piptocoma is without or with few scales only. Chinese material with rather well-developed scales below the corona but with a short, stout beak approaches and has been treated as C. laticoronata (see also FRPS 80(1): 296. 1997), necessitating a reassessment of the delimitation between both species.