艺林黄鹌菜 yi lin huang an cai

Herbs 3-10 cm tall, perennial, rosulate, delicate. Caudex strong, branching with age, with residues of old leaf bases. Stem solitary, capillaceous, simple or 1- or 2-branched from near base or higher up, sparsely hairy, leafless. Basal leaves spatulate, elliptic, or oblanceolate, 1-7 × 0.3-1 cm, both faces glabrous or sparsely white tomentose but abaxially glabrescent, undivided, weakly pinnatifid with 1 or 2 pairs of obtusely triangular to lanceolate lateral lobes, or pinnatipartite to pinnatisect with 2-6 opposite or alternate pairs of triangular to ovate, rounded to acute lateral lobes, base attenuate into a petiole-like portion, margin entire to sinuate-dentate, apex obtuse to acute. Capitulum solitary or synflorescence laxly corymbiform, with 2-5 capitula. Capitula with 9-15 florets. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 6-7 mm. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate, longest 1-1.5 mm, apex acute to obtuse; inner phyllaries 8, adaxially sparsely appressed hairy, midvein subapically mostly somewhat crested or corniculate, apex ± acute. Anther tube and style branches yellow upon drying. Achene dark brown, fusiform, 2.5-3 mm, ribs finally spiculate, apex attenuate. Pappus white, 4-5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

● Rocky slopes, rocks; 3000-3100 m. NW Yunnan (Zhongdian).

The original description of the apparently rare Youngia yilingii is based on a single collection from Zhongdian Xian of plants to 5 cm tall with entire to at most weakly pinnatifid, not more than 10 × 3 mm leaves. Another collection from the same county (B. Alden et al., Kunming Edinburgh Gothenburg Exped. 579, CAL 795201!) is considered also to belong to this remarkable species. It indicates that the leaf shape of the species shows some variation even in the same individual. In this collection only the early leaves of a rosette are similar to the ones described for Y. yilingii, while the later ones are larger and all pinnatipartite to pinnatisect as described above.