空桶参 kong tong shen

Crepis gillii S. Moore var. erysimoides Handel-Mazzetti, Acta Horti Gothob. 12: 355. 1938; Soroseris hookeriana Stebbins subsp. erysimoides (Handel-Mazzetti) Stebbins.

Herbs, perennial, usually conspicuously caulescent, usually without scalelike leaves above root. Taproot long. Stem solitary, 5-30 cm tall, 1-2 cm in diam., erect, hollow, leafy. Leaves oblanceolate, lanceolate, elliptic, or linear, 2-11 × 0.2-1.5 cm, base long attenuate, margin entire and flat or undulate, apex obtuse to rounded; upper leaves on stem similar but gradually smaller, glabrous or ± pilose; uppermost leaves on stem subtending capitula and on peduncles reduced in size, almost linear, 15-20 × < 1 mm, glabrous to pilose. Synflorescence ± hemispheric, with numerous closely crowded capitula. Capitula with 4 florets; peduncle usually shorter than capitulum. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 7-12 × 2-3 mm. Phyllaries olive to dark green, glabrous or sparsely pilose; outer phyllaries ca. 2, similar to uppermost reduced leaves, mostly ± as long as to longer than inner ones; inner phyllaries 4. Florets yellow. Anther tube and style blackish. Achene brown, subfusiform to obcolumnar, 4-6 mm, subequally ribbed and between main ribs usually with 2 or 3 secondary ribs. Pappus whitish to straw-colored and grayish apically, 7-11 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct. 2n = 16*.

Alpine thickets, meadows, scree slopes; 3000-3500 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].

The entire plant is used medicinally mainly for treating fractures.

Soroseris erysimoides is the most widespread and common species of the genus in China. It shares the conspicuously developed leafy stem with the following two species.