Saussurea sect. Gymnocline in Flora of China @ efloras.org

3. Saussurea sect. Gymnocline Franchet, J. Bot. (Morot). 2: 311. 1888.

无茎风毛菊组 wu jing feng mao ju zu

Herbs, stemless or substemless but sometimes with branched woody caudex and densely caespitose or forming dense cushions. Leaf blade margin entire, serrate, dentate, or sinuate. Capitula usually solitary in center of leaf rosette, large or medium-sized, sometimes several in a clustered synflorescence, sessile or shortly pedunculate. Receptacle with subulate, sometimes very short bristles or naked. Corolla glabrous or sometimes gland-dotted. Anther tails lacerate or lanate. Achene glabrous or glandular, without an apical crown but sometimes with a crenulate rim. Pappus usually in 2 rows; outer bristles scabrid or plumose, rarely very few or lacking.

Twenty species: Bhutan, China, NE and NW India, Japan, Kashmir, Nepal, Tajikistan; 17 species (13 endemic) in China.

Saussurea sect. Acaules C. B. Clarke (Compos. Ind. 220. 1876) was lectotypified by Kitamura (Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 24: 22. 1969) with S. stoliczkae (= S. andryaloides), a species now included in S. sect. Strictae. Lipschitz (Rod Saussurea, 106. 1979) explicitly excluded this lectotype from his S. sect. Acaules and thereby created an illegitimate later homonym (Vienna Code, Art. 48.1). The lectotype of S. sect. Depressae C. B. Clarke (loc. cit.: 221; chosen by Lipschitz, loc. cit.: 96-97) is S. andersonii, now also included in S. sect. Strictae. Saussurea sect. Depressae has often been regarded as highly artificial (Lipschitz, loc. cit.: 97). Moreover, its key character is not even very useful for grouping of species. Naked receptacles can be observed in most other sections as well and may only be used for keying out certain groups within a section. For this reason, S. sect. Depressae is merged here with S. sect. Acaules. The correct name for this section is S. sect. Gymnocline, typified by S. ciliaris.

1 Receptacle naked, without bristles; outer phyllaries apically green and reflexed; leaf margin entire; capitulum solitary (2)

+ Receptacle with sometimes very shortly subulate bristles; outer phyllaries apically not green or reflexed; leaf margin entire, dentate, or pinnately lobed; capitula solitary or several (4)

2 (1) Leaf blade narrowly linear, 1-2 mm wide. 77 S. poochlamys

+ Leaf blade narrowly obovate-elliptic to linear, 3-15 mm wide (3)

3 (2) Leaf blade adaxially green when dry, glabrous, rigid, and leathery; inner phyllaries acute at apex. 78 S. ciliaris

+ Leaf blade adaxially black when dry, puberulent or glabrous, soft, and herbaceous; inner phyllaries obtuse at apex. 79 S. coriolepis

4 (1) Leaves long petiolate; petiole 1.5-10 cm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or obovate, large (more than 1.5 cm wide), margin coarsely dentate or serrate (5)

+ Leaves shortly petiolate or sessile; petiole 0.1-2 cm; leaf blade spatulate, narrowly ovate, narrowly elliptic, or linear, small (less than 1.5 cm wide), margin entire, denticulate, sinuate-dentate, or pinnately lobed (6)

5 (4) Outer pappus bristles reflexed and appressed on achene; capitulum 1(or 2-4); leaf base cuneate, margin sharply dentate or serrulate. 75 S. katochaete

+ Outer pappus bristles neither reflexed nor appressed on achene; capitula 4-18 in a corymbiform synflorescence; leaf base cordate, margin shallowly sinuate-dentate. 76 S. bella

6 (4) Outer pappus bristles plumose but sometimes very few or lacking; leaf blade spatulate, adaxially villous or tomentose (7)

+ Outer pappus bristles scabrid; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, linear, sometimes narrowly obovate, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent (9)

7 (6) Leaf blade adaxially green, sparsely villous, abaxially glaucous but glabrescent. 82 S. montana

+ Leaf blade adaxially grayish green, sparsely tomentose, abaxially grayish white densely tomentose (8)

8 (7) Phyllaries sparsely white or yellowish villous, apex usually acuminate; leaf margin entire. 80 S. spatulifolia

+ Phyllaries dark brown or black villous, apex usually obtuse; leaf margin sinuate-dentate with short purple mucros. 81 S. melanotricha

9 (6) Plants forming dense cushions (10)

+ Plants not forming dense cushions but sometimes densely caespitose (12)

10 (9) Leaf blade pinnately lobed, apex rounded to subobtuse. 90 S. pulviniformis

+ Leaf blade undivided, apex acuminate or spinulose (11)

11 (10) Leaf blade 2-7 cm, abaxially white and tomentose; capitulum 2-3 cm in diam. 88 S. columnaris

+ Leaf blade 0.5-1.2 cm, abaxially green and glabrous; capitulum 0.5-0.7 cm in diam. 89 S. subulata

12 (9) Leaf blade green on both surfaces, glabrous or with glandular hairs (13)

+ Leaf blade abaxially white and densely tomentose, adaxially green or brown (14)

13 (12) Leaf blade glabrous, margin subentire. 86 S. pumila

+ Leaf blade densely glandular hairy, margin conspicuously sinuate-dentate. 87 S. apus

14 (12) Leaf blade margin dentate, crenate, or pinnate; plants densely caespitose. 91 S. wernerioides

+ Leaf blade margin entire or denticulate; plants not caespitose (15)

15 (14) Leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 1-3.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm; capitula 2-5. 83 S. ovatifolia

+ Leaf blade narrowly obovate to linear, 2.5-7 × 0.2-0.6 cm; capitulum solitary (16)

16 (15) Leaf blade spatulate to narrowly obovate, 3-6 mm wide, adaxially arachnoid and glandular. 84 S. cochleariifolia

+ Leaf blade linear to narrowly ovate-elliptic, 2-5 mm wide, adaxially glabrous. 85 S. minuta

List of lower taxa