垂头雪莲 chui tou xue lian

Herbs 30-90 cm tall, perennial. Caudex stout, simple or few branched. Stems 1-3, 3-5 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 15-55 × 1.5-6 cm, both surfaces light green, pilose, and glandular hairy, margin undulate and usually denticulate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, narrowly elliptic, 7.5-25 × 1.5-4.5 cm. Uppermost stem leaves sessile, ovate and boat-shaped, 3-15 × (1-)2.5-14 cm, membranous, half-enclosing synflorescence, both surfaces yellowish, base cordate, rounded, or cuneate and auriculate-amplexicaul, margin entire or denticulate, apex acuminate. Capitula (1 or)2-5, in a laxly paniculiform synflorescence or rarely solitary, nodding at anthesis and fruiting time, long pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, 2-3.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, blackish purple, villous, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-ovate, 14-16 × 3-6 mm; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate to linear, 1.6-2.2 × 0.2-0.5 cm. Receptacle bristles 5.5-9 mm. Corolla dark purple, 1.3-1.9 cm, tube 6-9.5 mm, limb 6-9.5 mm, lobes 2.5-5.5 mm. Achene straw-colored with blackish spots, obovoid, 5.4-6.7 mm, indistinctly ribbed. Pappus light yellowish brown; outer bristles 1-5.4 mm; inner bristles 1.1-1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Forest margins, grasslands, meadows near mountain rivers; 3200-4300 m. W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

Records of Saussurea wettsteiniana from Xizang are due to misidentifications (see discussion under S. luae).