矮小厚喙菊 ai xiao hou hui ju

Lactuca gombalana Handel-Mazzetti, Anz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. 61: 23. 1924.

Herbs to 10 cm tall, perennial, rosulate, acaulescent, with a taproot. Caudex short, sometimes branched, ± subterranean, glabrous, with 1 scape and sometimes with 1 lanceolate bract. Rosette leaves narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 3-9 × 0.5-0.7 cm, glabrous, base attenuate into a petiole-like portion, margin entire, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Capitula erect (to declined?), with 12-16 florets. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 1.5-1.8(-2.4) cm at anthesis but unknown in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially brownish purple, glabrous; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to lanceolate, approaching inner ones closely in length; inner phyllaries ca. 8. Florets blue to bluish purple. Achene not seen when mature. Pappus brownish, 1.3-1.5 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug.

● Ravines on mountain slopes, forests, alpine meadows; 3200-3900 m. Xizang, Yunnan.