宽苞刺头菊 kuan bao ci tou ju

Arctium platylepis (Fischer, C. A. Meyer & Avé-Lallemant) Kuntze.

Herbs 30-80 cm tall, biennial. Stems erect, grayish white cobwebby-felted; wings 3-4 mm wide, with spiny teeth. Leaves concolorous, grayish white, densely cobwebby-felted. Basal and lower cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, pinnately lobed. Upper cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm, margin spiny or toothed, teeth spiny laterally and narrowed into a 0.5-3 mm spine; uppermost cauline leaves elliptic to ovate, ca. 10 × 4-5 mm, margin entire. Capitula several. Involucre broadly campanulate, 1.5-2 cm in diam., densely cobwebby. Phyllaries in ca. 7 rows, grayish white; outer and middle phyllaries triangular, triangular-lanceolate, or elliptic, 3-10 × 1-3 mm, apex narrowed into a ca. 2 mm spine; inner phyllaries elliptic, ca. 11 × 3 mm, apex rigid, expanded, scarious, and mucronulate; innermost phyllaries broadly linear, ca. 14 × 2 mm, apex obtuse to rounded. Corolla red, ca. 1.2 cm, tube ca. 5 mm. Achene yellowish, ellipsoid, ca. 1.8 mm, multistriate. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

Slopes; 1200-2000 m. NW Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan].