白舌飞蓬 bai she fei peng

Herbs, perennial, to 35 cm tall; rhizome short, woody. Stems single, erect or ascending, stout, 3-4 mm in diam. at base, often branched, sparsely to moderately hirsute-villous, strigillose, ± densely stipitate glandular above. Leaves: basal withered or present at anthesis, narrowly winged long petiolate, petiole base clasping, blade oblanceolate to oblanceolate-spatulate, 6-9 × 1-1.6 cm, surfaces sparsely hirsute, 3-veined, base attenuate, margin entire, hirsute-ciliate, apex obtuse, mucronate; lower cauline similar, shortly petiolate, margin entire or with 1-3 fine serrations, mid and upper sessile, blade ovate-elliptic to lanceolate, 2.5-5 × 1-1.8 cm, surfaces abaxially hirsute on veins or glabrate, 3-5-veined, base cuneate, ± subclasping, margin entire, hirsute-ciliate, apex acute, mucronate, uppermost blade narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1-2 × 0.2-0.4 cm, surfaces and margin also distally stipitate glandular, adaxially strigillose, 1-veined. Capitula 3-7 in corymbiform synflorescences, 2.5-3 cm in diam. Involucre hemispheric, ca. 6 × 12-17 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, dark green, purplish at apex and margin, lanceolate, ca. 0.3 mm wide, distinctly exceeding disk, abaxially basally hirsute, densely stipitate glandular, apex acuminate, outer ones short, inner 5-6 mm, margin scarious, erose. Ray florets 3-seriate, 10-11 mm, tube 1.5-2 mm, sparsely hairy distally, lamina white, flat and patent, 1-1.2 mm wide; disk florets yellow, ca. 4.2 mm, tube ca. 1.2 mm, sparsely hairy in middle part, limb narrowly funnelform, lobes triangular, 0.4-0.5 mm, purple, glabrous. Achenes (immature) oblong, compressed, ± strigose. Pappus 2-seriate, (immature) outer bristles short, inner ca. 3.8 mm. Fl. Aug.

● Alpine grasslands; ca. 3400 m. Xizang (Gongbo’gyamda).