薄苞风毛菊 bao bao feng mao ju

Saussurea handeliana Y. Ling; S. inconspicua Handel-Mazzetti; S. modesta Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 3-20 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, purple, slender, erect, densely or sparsely villous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole to 2 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 2.5-6.5 × 0.6-1.7 cm, pinnately lobed, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green to purple and glabrous; lateral lobes 2-5 pairs, triangular, apex obtuse and mucronate. Stem leaves 1 or 2, narrowly elliptic to linear, margin irregularly triangular-dentate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre obconic, ca. 1.7 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 5 rows, apically sparsely villous, apex long acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, ca. 11 × 1 mm; middle phyllaries ovate-elliptic, ca. 13 × 3 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, ca. 1.9 × 0.2 cm. Corolla purplish red, ca. 1 cm, tube ca. 7 mm, limb ca. 3 mm. Achene purplish red, cylindric, ca. 5 mm, glabrous. Pappus yellowish brown; outer bristles 2-3 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug.

● Alpine meadows; 4200-4400 m. W Sichuan.