变裂风毛菊 bian lie feng mao ju

Herbs 40-100 cm tall, perennial. Rhizome short and stout, with many fibrous roots. Stem solitary, ca. 6 mm in diam., erect, apically branched. Lower stem leaves withered at anthesis. Middle stem leaves shortly petiolate to sessile; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 4-18 × 2-6 cm, pinnately lobed, lyrate-pinnately lobed, or undivided and sinuate-dentate, abaxially pale green and thinly arachnoid, adaxially green and strigose, base ± decurrent, apex ± long acuminate; lateral lobes 4-14 pairs, ovate-oblong, 5-13 × 2-6 mm. Upper stem leaves narrowly elliptic to linear, base decurrent, margin dentate, teeth broadly triangular, apex long acuminate and mucronate. Uppermost stem leaves linear, margin entire. Capitula several, in a corymbiform synflorescence, pedunculate or sessile. Involucre narrowly campanulate or tubular, ca. 5 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 6 rows, apically purplish red, sparsely arachnoid; outer phyllaries ovate, apex acute; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, to 9 mm, apically densely arachnoid villous, apex subobtuse. Receptacle bristles subulate, ca. 4 mm. Corolla purple, 8-11 mm, tube 4-4.5 mm, limb 4-4.5 mm, lobes ca. 3 mm. Achene grayish brown, ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Pappus pale yellowish brown; outer bristles 2-3 mm; inner bristles 8-9 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

● Mountain slopes; 1900-2700 m. S Gansu, E Qinghai (Xunhua), N Sichuan.

No specimens of Saussurea variiloba were seen by the present authors, and the description here is based on the original publication and the treatments by X. Y. Wu (Fl. Loess-Plat. Sin. 5: 446. 1989) and S. W. Liu (Fl. Qinghai. 3: 481. 1996). This species is similar to S. compta but differs in the decurrent leaf bases, thinly arachnoid abaxial leaf surface, and higher number of lateral leaf lobes. The application of the name is problematic because the type material seems to be lost (Lipschitz, Rod Saussurea, 251. 1979). Lipschitz’s choice of a neotype (loc. cit.), which seems even closer to S. compta and may well be conspecific with that taxon, is not entirely in accordance with the original description.