小风毛菊 xiao feng mao ju

Saussurea lancifolia Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 2.5-7 cm tall, perennial, stemless or shortly stemmed. Caudex 2-3 mm in diam., creeping, usually few branched, with several sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Rosette leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 3-7 × 0.2-0.5 cm, abaxially white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous, base attenuate, margin revolute and entire, apex acute. Stem leaves (if present) similar to rosette leaves but gradually shorter upward on stem; uppermost leaves sessile, subtending and overtopping capitulum. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosette or terminal on a short stem. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 0.8-1.2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, purple; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate, 9-11 × 3-5 mm, glabrous, apex acute; middle phyllaries ovate, 12-14 × 3-4 mm, glabrous, apex acute; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-linear, 14-16 × 2-3 mm, apically densely villous, apex obtuse. Receptacle bristles subulate-filiform, 7-8 mm. Corolla purple, 1.2-1.4 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 6-7 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Achene only seen as immature. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles ca. 2 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Alpine scree slopes; 3500-4900 m. Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan.