九龙蟹甲草 jiu long xie jia cao

Rhizomes procumbent or ascending, slender, with many fibrous roots. Stem solitary, erect, striate, scapiform, 30-35 cm tall, slender. Leaves 3 or 4, crowded near base, long petiolate, persistent at anthesis; petiole not winged, (3-)4-6 cm, glabrous, base slightly expanded, subamplexicaul; blade abaxially becoming purple-red when dry, adaxially green, broadly ovate-cordate or cordate, papery, abaxially laxly hispidulous or subglabrous, ciliate, adaxially glabrous, basally 3-5-veined, lateral veins upward furcately branched, base cordate or subtruncate, margin undulate-toothed, teeth mucronulate, apex obtuse or slightly acute, mucronulate. Capitula 8-10, in upper part of stem, arranged in spicate racemes; peduncles 2-4(-5) mm, with 1 or 2 linear or linear-lanceolate bractlets, excurved or pendulous, sparsely arachnoid or ± glabrescent. Capitula inserted on one side. Involucres cylindric, ca. 10 × 2-3 mm; phyllaries 5, linear or linear-lanceolate, ca. 10 × 0.5-1 mm, outside glabrous, margin narrowly scarious, apically acute or obtuse. Florets 5; corolla yellow, 5-6 mm, with slender 1.5-2 mm tube and narrowly campanulate limb; lobes lanceolate. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally caudate. Style branches excurved, truncate, papillose. Achenes yellow-brown, cylindric, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus white, 5-6 mm. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.

● Understories of Picea forests; ca. 2700 m. Sichuan (Jiulong).