矮垂头菊 ai chui tou ju

Cremanthodium comptum W. W. Smith; Senecio kansuensis Franchet.

Stem solitary, erect, 5-20 cm tall, 2-3 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally long white and black pilose; underground stem stocklike, horizontal or ascending, with scale leaf and roots on nodes. Rosette of leaves absent. Stem leaves numerous. Proximal stem leaves petiolate; petiole 2-14 cm, glabrous, base ± sheathed; leaf blade ovate or ovate-oblong, sometimes orbicular, 0.7-6 × 1-4 cm, abaxially densely white puberulent, adaxially glabrous, pinnately veined, base cuneate or rounded, margin entire or shallowly dentate, apex obtuse or rounded. Middle to distal stem leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; leaf blade ovate to linear, smaller distally, abaxially densely white puberulent, margin entire or dentate. Capitulum solitary. Involucre hemispheric, 8-13 × 10-30 mm, outside densely white and black pilose; phyllaries 8-12, in 1 row, base united and cupular; separate part linear-lanceolate, 2-3 mm wide, apex acute or acuminate. Ray florets yellow; lamina extending from involucre, elliptic, 1-2 cm × 3-4 mm, apex acute; tube ca. 3 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 7-9 mm; tube ca. 3 mm. Achenes brown, oblong, 3-4 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov. 2n = 60*, 116*.

Gravelly areas on mountains; 3500-5300 m. Gansu, Qinghai, SW and W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan].