红齿假苦菜 hong chi jia ku cai

Crepis alaica Krascheninnikov, Trudy Bot. Inst. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Ser. 1, Fl. Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 1: 182. 1933; Youngia alaica (Krascheninnikov) Kamelin.

Herbs 5-10(-15) cm tall, perennial, inconspicuously white lanate in leaf axils otherwise glabrous, glaucescent. Roots and subterranean shoots slender. Stem delicate, sparsely branched mostly from base, leafy. Basal and lower stem leaves obovate to oblanceolate, 1.5-3.5 × 0.7-1.5(-2) cm, undivided to shallowly pinnatifid with wide lobes, base petiole-like attenuate, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate with coarse acute teeth, apex obtuse to subacute. Middle and upper stem leaves few, similar to lower stem leaves but usually sessile, only uppermost leaves smaller. Synflorescence corymbiform, with few capitula. Capitula with 9 or 10 florets; peduncle much shorter than involucre. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 10-11 × 2-3 mm. Phyllaries dark green, glabrous, apex ± acute; outer phyllaries ovate to lanceolate, longest 3-4 mm; inner phyllaries 8(-10), margin thin and scarious. Florets orangish yellow or sometimes tinged pink. Corolla 1-1.7 cm. Anther tube ca. 5 mm. Achene yellowish reddish brown, slenderly fusiform, 7-7.5 mm, apically conspicuously attenuate. Pappus 5.5-6.5 mm, persistent. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 14.

Alpine gravelly or rocky stream banks, scree slopes; ?2500-4500 m. SW Xinjiang [E Kyrgyzstan, NE Tajikistan].

Askellia alaica, under the name Crepis alaica, has been reported generally from the border range between China, E Kyrgyzstan, and NE Tajikistan (Czerepanov, Fl. URSS 29: 653. 1966). So far, no substantiated records from Chinese territory are known (C. H. An, Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 460. 1999), although its presence must be assumed. The description is based on those by Czerepanov (Fl. URSS 29: 653. 1966) and Babcock (Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 22: 532. 1947).