木里垂头菊 mu li chui tou ju

Plants grayish green, mealy. Stem solitary, erect, 20-40 cm tall, 2-4 mm in diam. at base, glabrous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole to 6 cm, glabrous, with narrow wings, base sheathed; leaf blade narrowly elliptic or narrowly spatulate, 10-18 × to 2.5 cm, thick, succulent, glabrous, pinnately veined, base gradually narrowed into petiole, margin entire, apex acute or obtuse. Stem leaves 4-6, sessile, bracteal, lanceolate, 2-9 cm, smaller distally. Capitulum solitary, nodding; leaflike bracts 5 or 6, grayish green, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, to 1.5 × 1.2 cm, apex acute, glabrous. Involucre hemispheric, ca. 1 × to 2.5 cm, outside glabrous; phyllaries in 2 rows, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 mm wide, apex acuminate. Ray florets yellow; lamina linear-lanceolate, to 3 cm, apex acuminate. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, ca. 8 mm; tube ca. 3 mm. Achenes (immature) oblong, 3-5 mm. Pappus white, ca. 4 mm, shorter than tubular corolla. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Forest understories, grassy slopes, alpine meadows; 3000-4300 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.