棉毛飞蓬 mian mao fei peng

Herbs, perennial, 18-25 cm tall, caespitose; rhizome woody, thick, ascending. Stems numerous, green, purplish striate, simple or branched above, villous, strigillose, more densely so upward. Leaves: basal rosulate, withered or present at anthesis, narrowly winged petiolate, petiole base clasping, blade spatulate or oblanceolate, 2-7 × 0.5-0.8 cm, 3-veined, base attenuate, margin entire or 1-3-serrulate, villous-ciliate, apex obtuse, mucronate; cauline numerous, lower shortly petiolate or subsessile, blade oblong-oblanceolate or oblong, 3-5 × ca. 0.7 cm, surfaces sparsely villous, mid and upper blade elliptic-ovate, slightly reduced upward, surfaces villous, base cuneate, subclasping, margin villous-ciliate, apex acuminate, uppermost lanate (crosswalls purple). Capitula solitary or few in corymbose synflorescences, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Involucre hemispheric, 8-10 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, ± purple, appressed, linear-lanceolate or linear, exceeding disk florets, 1-1.5 mm wide, apex acuminate, outer 7.5-8 mm, abaxially and marginally lanate (crosswalls purple), mid and inner subequal, longer, margin scarious, purplish, apex often reflexed. Ray florets 2- or 3-seriate, bright purple, 7-8 mm, tube hairy, lamina 0.3-0.4 mm wide, ± exceeding involucre, involute when dry; disk florets yellow, 4-4.8 mm, sparsely hairy, tube 2-2.3 mm, limb cylindric-funnelform, lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm, purplish, hairy, anthers and style branches often exserted from corolla. Achenes narrowly oblong, 2-2.5 mm, strigose, glandular. Pappus 2-seriate, outer bristles flattened, ca. 0.5 mm, inner ca. 5.5 mm. Fl. Aug.

● Alpine grasslands on slopes; 3200-4200 m. SE Xizang (Bomi, Zayü).