多花刺头菊 duo hua ci tou ju

Arctium polycephalum (Ruprecht) Kuntze.

Herbs to 1 m tall, perennial. Stems erect, branched from middle or apically, unwinged, cobwebby. Leaves leathery, abaxially grayish white and sparsely to thickly felted, adaxially green and sparsely cobwebby. Basal leaves petiolate; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate, 15-50 × 5-11 cm, pinnatisect; segments triangular, margin with spiny teeth. Lower cauline leaves similar to basal leaves but sessile and smaller. Capitula many, corymbose. Involucre narrowly ellipsoid to cylindric, 6-8 mm in diam., cobwebby. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows; outer phyllaries 4-5 mm, apex narrowed into a short spine; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate to narrowly lanceolate, ca. 3 × as long as outer ones, apex narrowed into a long spine; inner phyllaries linear. Corolla yellow. Achene obconic, 4-5 mm, 3- or 4-ribbed, ribs apically prolonged into a tooth. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 24.

Rocky slopes in mountains. Xinjiang (W Tian Shan) [Tajikistan].

No material of Cousinia polycephala from China was seen by the present authors, and the description here is based on the treatment by Tscherneva (Fl. URSS 27: 206. 1962).