23. Ligularia dux (C. B. Clarke) Y. Ling, Contr. Inst. Bot. Natl. Acad. Peiping. 5: 3. 1937.
紫花橐吾 zi hua tuo wu
Stem erect, to 90 cm tall, 3-5 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally umbrella-branched, shortly purplish brown pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 6-25 cm, slender, glabrous, base narrowly sheathed; leaf blade orbicular-reniform or reniform, 1.5-10 × (3-)6-15 cm, abaxially pilose, adaxially glabrescent, palmately veined, margin triangular-dentate, apex rounded; sinus ca. 1/3 as long as leaf blade, broad, basal lobes oblong, to 10 cm, margin coarsely dentate. Stem leaves smaller, reniform, petiolate, sheath amplexicaul. Corymbs compound, spreading or narrowed; branches to 13 cm; leaflike and supplementary bracts linear, 4-10 mm. Peduncles 3-7 mm, shortly purplish brown pilose. Capitula 5-8 or more. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 8-10 × 2-3 mm, outside shortly purplish brown pilose; phyllaries 4 or 5, in 2 rows, oblong, 2-3 mm wide, apex obtuse; inner phyllaries membranous at margin. Florets 4 or 5, purplish red, all tubular, 8-9 mm; tube 3-4 mm. Achenes yellowish brown, cylindric, 5-7 mm. Pappus yellowish brown, slightly shorter than tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Aug.
Grassy slopes, forest understories; 3200-4200 m. Xizang [NE India, Myanmar].
