紫苞风毛菊 zi bao feng mao ju

Herbs to 5 cm tall, perennial, shortly stemmed. Caudex covered with brown remains of petioles. Stem solitary, erect, simple, pubescent. Rosette leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; leaf blade linear, 4-9 × 0.3-0.8 cm, runcinate pinnately lobed, abaxially grayish green and densely tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous; lateral lobes 8-15 pairs, narrowly triangular, apex acute and mucronate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre broadly campanulate, 2-2.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, glabrous, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 13-14 × ca. 4 mm, apically green, herbaceous, and reflexed; inner phyllaries linear, ca. 17 × 2 mm, basally pale green, apically purple and erect. Receptacle bristles ca. 2 mm. Corolla purplish red, 1.5-1.8 cm, tube 8-10 mm, limb 7-9 mm, lobes 4-5 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, ca. 2 mm, smooth, glabrous, apically with a short crown. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 8-10 mm; inner bristles ca. 1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

● Thickets on mountain slopes; ca. 4200 m. S Xizang (Yadong) [?Bhutan].

Saussurea purpurascens is only known from the type and may well be only a variety of S. andersonii with developed short stems and adaxially tomentose leaves.