毛大戟 mao da ji

Herbs, perennial, erect, 50-90 cm tall. Rootstock a deep taproot to 10 mm thick. Stems single or in small clusters, to 9 mm thick, upper parts few branched, often conspicuously white pilose. Leaves alternate, well spaced; stipules absent; basal scale-leaves ovate, overlapping; petiole almost absent; leaf blade elliptic, 4-6 × 1.5-2.5 cm, glabrous or abaxially pilose especially near midrib, base broadly cuneate, margin finely ?serrulate, apex rounded; lateral veins 5-7 pairs. Primary involucral leaves 4-8, similar to normal leaves but smaller, 2-3 × 0.8-1.8 cm, primary rays 4-8, 3-4 cm; cyathophylls 2, subrounded, 10-15 × 10-15 mm, base rounded, apex rounded. Cyathium sessile; involucre subcampanulate, ca. 2.5 × 3 mm, lobes rounded to triangular, sparsely pilose; glands 4, dark brown to pale brown, rounded to oblong, entire. Male flowers many, slightly exserted from involucre or same. Female flower: ovary shortly exserted from cup, densely long tuberculate; styles free, persistent; style arms slightly 2-lobed. Capsule compressed globose, 2.5-3.5 × 3.5-4.5 mm, tuberculate. Seeds abaxially inconspicuously angled, 2-2.5 × ca. 1 mm, gray-brown, adaxially white striate; caruncle thin, peltate, shortly stipitate. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Alpine meadows, steppes, margins of open forests. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia), Tajikistan].