红花假苦菜 hong hua jia ku cai

Crepis lactea Lipschitz, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 42: 159. 1937; Askellia minuta (Kitamura) Sennikov; C. minuta Kitamura; Youngia lactea (Lipschitz) Kamelin; Y. pygmaea (Ledebour) Ledebour var. purpurea C. Winkler ex O. Fedtschenko.

Herbs 3-4[-10] cm tall, perennial, glabrous, glaucescent. Roots and subterranean shoots often branched and slender. Stem delicate, erect or sometimes procumbent, branched from base or middle, leafy. Basal and lower stem leaves with a 1-1.5 cm petiole; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly elliptic-ovate, 7-10 × ca. 6 mm, base cuneate, margin entire or sinuate-dentate, apex acute. Upper stem leaves similar to lower stem leaves but narrowly elliptic, smaller, sometimes tinged with purple, margin entire. Synflorescence corymbiform, with few to several capitula. Capitula with 10-12 florets; peduncle filiform, 0.5-2 cm. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 8-10 × 3-4 mm. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous but ciliate at apex; outer phyllaries green, ovate to lanceolate, longest 2-2.5 mm, margin thin and scarious, apex obtuse to acute; inner phyllaries 8, apex acute. Florets pale purplish red. Corolla 1.1-1.4 cm. Anther tube 3-4 mm. Achene yellowish brown, slenderly columnar to fusiform, 4-6 mm, apex only slightly attenuate. Pappus 5-6 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Gravelly areas on floodplains; 3100-4000 m. Xinjiang, Xizang [Tajikistan].