康定黄鹌菜 kang ding huang an cai

Herbs 7-20 cm tall, perennial. Taproot with shoot-bearing lateral roots. Stem solitary, slender, erect, sparsely branched from near base or middle. Basal leaves obovate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 2-5.5 × 5-1.5 mm, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect, sparsely pubescent, base attenuate into a short petiole-like portion, margin sinuate-dentate; lateral lobes 1-4 pairs, broadly triangular, small; terminal lobes elliptic to obliquely triangular, margin entire, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute and mucronulate. Stem leaves absent or very few, similar to basal leaves but smaller or more strongly reduced. Synflorescence corymbiform, with usually 3-5 capitula. Capitula with ca. 15 florets; peduncle capillaceous, mostly 1-5 cm. Involucre narrowly cylindric, ca. (7-)8 mm. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries triangular to ovate, longest ca. 1 mm, apex obtuse; inner phyllaries 8, adaxially sparsely appressed hairy, midvein subapically mostly somewhat crested or corniculate, apex acute. Achene brown, fusiform, ca. 3.5 mm, apex strongly attenuate. Pappus white, 5-5.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Thickets; 1800-3300 m. W Sichuan (Kangding).

Youngia kangdingensis and the following five species appear to be more closely related to each other, and all are insufficiently known with respect to the extent of their variation, distribution, and actual delimitation.