镇苞菊 zhen bao ju

Herbs 0.6-1.4 m tall, perennial. Stem branched from base or middle; stem and branches purplish red, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Lower stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade elliptic to lanceolate, 5-12 × 3-5 cm, scabrid, yellowish gland-dotted, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Upper stem leaves sessile, similar to lower stem leaves, 2-4 × 0.3-1.3 cm. Peduncles slender, ca. 1 mm in diam. Capitula nodding. Involucre hemispheric, 1.5-4 cm in diam. Phyllaries in many rows; appendage usually blackish, awnlike, 4-24 × 0.5-0.7 mm, somewhat recurved; outer phyllaries sparsely ciliate toward apex; inner phyllaries densely ciliate to plumose toward apex. Corolla yellow, ca. 2 cm; lobes glabrous. Achene cuneate-ellipsoid, 4-5 mm, glabrous. Pappus elements scabrid to serrulate, deciduous, decreasing in length outward, basally connate into a ring; innermost pappus elements ca. 15 × 0.1 mm, flattened. Fl. and fr. Oct.

Forest margins in mountain valleys; ca. 2600 m. SE Xizang [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].

Tricholepis furcata has been indicated to also occur in NW India, Kashmir, and Pakistan (Nasir & Ali, Fl. W. Pakistan, 797. 1972; Hajra, Fl. India 12: 222. 1995). Those specimens, however, are distinct from typical T. furcata by their erect capitula and wider (ca. 1 mm wide), apically glabrous phyllaries and should instead be referred to T. elongata Candolle.