虾须草 xia xu cao

Sheareria leshanensis Z. Y. Zhu; S. polii Franchet.

Herbs, biennial (or winter annual), 10-100 cm tall, taprooted. Stems ramified. Leaves shortly petiolate (lower) or sessile, blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, 4-50 × 1.3-6 mm, surfaces glabrous, eglandular or sometimes sparsely minutely stipitate glandular on abaxial base of petiole, margin sparsely ciliate, apex acute to obtuse, mucronulate; upper smaller, bractlike. Capitula 2-2.2 mm; peduncles 3-5 mm. Phyllaries 4 or 5, green, surfaces glabrous or sparsely strigillose, eglandular, margin scarious, ciliate, apex obtuse. Ray florets 3 or 4, tube ca. 1 mm, minutely stipitate glandular, lamina white or pinkish tipped, ca. 2 × 1-1.2 mm, becoming coiled; disk florets functionally male, 2 or 3, yellow, 1.5-2 mm, tube 0.5-0.6 mm, limb ca. 1.2 mm, lobes spreading to recurved, triangular, ca. 0.4 mm, tube, limb, and lobe base glabrous, minutely stipitate glandular. Achenes brown, 3.5-4 mm, 3-ribbed, ribs narrow, minutely stipitate glandular. Fl. Apr-Nov, fr. Oct-Nov.

● Fields, moist grasslands, sandy stream banks; sea level to 700 m. Anhui, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

Fruit of ray florets develop while disk florets are opening.