糙毛黄鹌菜 cao mao huang an cai

Herbs 8-30 cm tall, perennial, caudex often with residues of old leaf bases. Stem slender, erect, branched from base or middle third, almost leafless; branches sericeous below, glabrous above. Basal leaves elliptic, ovate-elliptic, broadly ovate, oblanceolate, or orbicular, 2-5 × 0.6-1.5 cm, lyrately pinnatipartite or undivided, densely strigose, base attenuate or constricted into a winged petiole-like portion, apex rounded to obtuse; lateral lobes 2-4 pairs, triangular to elliptic, margin entire, apex acute, rounded, or obtuse; terminal lobe elliptic, hastate, or irregularly hastate, much larger than lateral ones, margin entire or retrorsely dentate, apex rounded to obtuse. Stem leaves 1 or 2, narrowly elliptic to linear, reduced in size, apex long acuminate. Synflorescence corymbiform to paniculiform-corymbiform, with few to some capitula. Capitula with ca. 11 florets. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 8-10 mm. Phyllaries dark green, abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries broadly ovate, longest ca. 1.5 mm, apex acute to obtuse; inner phyllaries ca. 8, adaxially appressed hairy, midvein subapically crested or corniculate, margin white scarious, apex acute to obtuse. Achene not seen when mature. Pappus white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Jul.

● Thickets in mountain valleys, moist areas in river valleys; 3200-3600 m. W Sichuan (Kangding).

Youngia pilifera is close to the polymorphic Y. paleacea and possibly only a delicate dwarf morph of the latter. See also note under Y. paleacea.