密垫火绒草 mi dian huo rong cao

Leontopodium jacotianum Beauverd var. haastioides (Handel-Mazzetti) R. C. Srivastava.

Herbs, perennial, forming dense cushions up to 10 cm in diam. Rhizome slender and many branched. Shoots numerous, 1.5-3 cm tall, shortly columnar, with closely imbricate leaves. Leaves spatulate or oblong, 2-6 × 1-2 mm, basal part appressed, thin, scarious, abaxially sparsely arachnoid, distal part spreading, thickened, herbaceous, thickly grayish tomentose, apex rounded. Capitula solitary, dioecious or predominantly female, 3-4 mm in diam., ebracteate, immersed among leaves. Phyllaries lanceolate to oblanceolate, 4-6 × 0.6-2 mm, apex acute or obtuse, tips scarious, brownish. Corolla 3-4 mm. Achenes ca. 1.2 mm, papillose or glabrous; male ovary glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Pappus white, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

Alpine meadows, stony slopes, snow lines; 4300-5300 m. Sichuan (Muli), Xizang [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].