刺果苓菊 ci guo ling ju

Serratula chaetocarpa Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 4: 42. 1833; Jurinea scapiformis C. Shih.

Herbs 10-45 cm tall, perennial. Caudex apically covered with remains of petioles, densely lanate. Stems usually several or rarely solitary, erect, simple or few branched. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 9 cm; leaf blade elliptic, 4-11 × 1-3 cm, pinnately lobed, green to grayish white, almost concolorous, glabrous to densely arachnoid tomentose; lobes 4-6 pairs, narrowly elliptic, narrowly ovate, or obliquely triangular, margin entire or sinuate, apex acute to acuminate; terminal lobe narrowly ovate-elliptic, longer than lateral ones. Stem leaves few or absent, similar to rosette leaves but sessile and sometimes linear-subulate and undivided. Capitulum solitary at end of branches. Involucre bowl-shaped, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, narrowly triangular-ovate to linear-subulate, apex spiniform-acuminate; outer and middle phyllaries 6-11 × 2-3 mm, apex reflexed to patent; inner phyllaries 1.4-2 × 0.3-0.4 cm. Corolla purplish red, 1.2-1.5 cm, tube ca. 4 mm, limb ca. 9 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Achene ellipsoid-obconic, 4-6 mm, densely spinulose-tuberculate. Pappus bristles white, barbellate, 7.5-10 mm, with 1 or 2 of inner ones much longer than others, basally connate into a ring, caducous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

Gravelly deserts, saline and sandy steppes; 500-2000 m. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, W Mongolia].