变叶垂头菊 bian ye chui tou ju

Stem solitary, erect, 8-25 cm tall, 1.5-2.5 mm in diam. at base, densely white or proximally brown and distally white pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 2-5 cm, slender, densely pilose, base sheathed; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 1-4.5 × 0.6-3.5 cm, glabrous, pinnately veined, base cuneate or subrounded, margin entire and pilose, apex obtuse or rounded. Stem leaves numerous, dense, sessile, linear-oblong, longer than internodes, smaller than basal leaves, margin entire. Capitulum solitary, nodding. Involucre hemispheric, 8-10 × ca. 15 mm, outside glabrous, base pilose; phyllaries 12-14, in 2 rows, oblong or lanceolate, 3-5 mm wide, apex acute; inner phyllaries broader, margin membranous. Ray florets yellow; lamina oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, 1-1.5 cm × 2-4 mm, with brown veins, apex obtuse or truncate, 3-dentate. Tubular florets numerous, deep yellow, 6-7 mm; tube ca. 1 mm. Achenes brown or yellowish brown, obovoid, 2-3 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

● Grasslands beneath bamboo forests, margins of bamboo forests, grassy slopes, alpine meadows; 3200-4500 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.