卵叶风毛菊 luan ye feng mao ju

Saussurea pseudocolorata Danguy.

Herbs 1.5-15 cm tall, perennial. Caudex slender, 2-3 mm in diam., simple or few branched. Stem solitary, erect or ascending, simple. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 1-5 cm, winged; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, obovate, or suborbicular, 1.5-6 × 1.2-4 cm, both surfaces green, glabrescent or arachnoid villous, and glandular hairy at margin, margin sinuate-dentate, apex rounded to acuminate and mucronate. Upper stem leaves similar to lower ones, gradually smaller upward on stem; uppermost stem leaf narrowly elliptic to linear, subtending synflorescence. Capitula 3-15(-25), in a densely condensed globose or lax corymbiform synflorescence. Involucre campanulate, 8-9 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, purple and villous in apical part, apex subacute; outer phyllaries broadly triangular-ovate, 2-3 × ca. 2 mm; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 3-10 × ca. 2 mm. Receptacle without bristles. Corolla purplish red, 1.2-1.3 cm, glabrous, tube 6-7 mm, limb ca. 6 mm, lobes ca. 3 mm. Achene brown, 2-2.5 mm, ribbed, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles 4-5 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug.

Alpine meadows, gravelly mountain slopes, moist riverbeds, sand dunes; 2400-4300 m. SW Xinjiang [Tajikistan].