14. Inula japonica Thunberg, Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 4: 39. 1783.
旋覆花 xuan fu hua
Herbs, perennial, from short rhizomes. Stems 15-100 cm tall, striate, appressed pilose, sometimes glabrescent, simple, branched up to synflorescence. Leaves radical and cauline; radical and lower cauline leaves smaller than median leaves, withering before flowering; median leaves lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, appressed pilose or subglabrous on both surfaces, base abruptly narrowed, sessile or semiclasping, apex subacute; upper leaves gradually smaller, 10-25 mm. Capitula usually few or solitary, radiate, ca. 3.5 cm in diam., sometimes with subtending bracteal leaves. Involucre subglobose, 7-8 mm tall; phyllaries in 5 series, subequal, outer ones lanceolate, apex acuminate, inner narrow, scarious, ciliolate. Marginal florets in 1 series; lamina yellow, 16-19 × 1.5-2 mm. Disk 1.5-1.7 cm in diam.; corollas ca. 3 mm. Achenes cylindric, ca. 1 mm, 10-ribbed, pilose. Pappus of capillary bristles, sordid, ca. 5 mm, bristles minutely scabrid. Fl. Jun-Oct. 2n = 16, 24.
Montane slopes, grasslands, riverbanks, fields, broad-leaved forests, streamsides; 100-2400 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].