宽叶兔儿风 kuan ye tu er feng

Liatris latifolia D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 169. 1825; Ainsliaea heterantha Handel-Mazzetti; A. hypoleuca Diels; A. latifolia var. ramifera H. Chuang; A. petelotii Merrill; A. pteropoda Candolle; A. pteropoda var. silhetensis Candolle; A. silhetensis (Candolle) C. B. Clarke.

Herbs, perennial, 30-90(-130) cm tall. Leaves in basal rosette; petiole broadly winged, (2-)4-9(-11) × 4-30 mm (at upper point); leaf blade ovate or narrowly ovate, (2-)5-10 × (1.5-)3-8 cm, papery, palmate-pinnate veined, concolorous, strigose on both surfaces with long straight trichomes, or more commonly slightly discolorous with abaxial surface strigose-lanate and adaxial surface sparsely strigose, base constricted and decurrent into petiole, margin callose-denticulate and straight, apex obtuse or acute. Capitula subsessile or shortly pedunculate, (1 or)2-4 clustered, arranged in spikes or panicles, 3-flowered; involucre cylindric, ca. 3 mm in diam.; phyllaries ca. 5-seriate, papery, abaxially ± sparsely pilose, outer phyllaries ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, inner elliptic, ca. 8 mm. Florets bisexual, usually chasmogamous (sometimes without pappus), more rarely cleistogamous (at different seasons or in same plant). Chasmogamous floret corollas tubular, 0.8-1.1 cm, deeply 5-lobed, lobes oblong, unequal, anther appendages rounded. Achenes subfusiform, ca. 5.5 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus absent or present, brownish, 8-10 mm. Cleistogamous floret corollas closed, tubular, minutely 5-lobed, ca. 4 mm, hidden in pappus. Achenes subfusiform, ca. 6 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus brownish, 8-10 mm. Fl. year-round.

Valleys with evergreen forests, mossy sites in evergreen forests by streams, open forests, roadsides, very dry open places in full sunlight or some shade; 800-3600 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

Ainsliaea latifolia most resembles A. bonatii, A. macrocephala, A. qianiana, and A. spicata, those species with winged petioles. However, they may be differentiated by their leaf blades, e.g., ovate, concolorous, strigose, and rounded at the base in A. latifolia var. latifolia. Ainsliaea bonatii has cordate leaf blades, whereas A. spicata has obovate or obovate to pandurate blades. Ainsliaea qianiana is distinguished by its glabrous and somewhat fleshy leaves. Ainsliaea macrocephala may be distinguished by its larger involucre, 13-15 mm, as well as by its foliar trichomes T-shaped.

Ainsliaea hypoleuca (A. petelotii) was treated as a separate species by Freire (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 94: 131. 2007) on account of its strongly discolorous leaves, which are densely white tomentose below and deep green and glabrous above.

"Perdicium triflorum" (D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 169. 1825) belongs here but was not validly published because it was merely cited as a synonym of Liatris latifolia (Vienna Code, Art. 34.1(c)). Consequently, the intended new combination "Ainsliaea triflora" (Druce, Rep. Bot. Exch. Cl. Brit. Isles 1916: 603. 1917) was not validly published either.

"Ainsliaea latifolia var. taiwanensis" (S. E. Freire, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 94: 136. 2007), described from China (Taiwan), Indonesia, and Thailand, was not validly published because no Latin description or diagnosis, or reference to such, was provided (Vienna Code, Art. 36.1). It is therefore excluded from the present treatment.