Pyrethrum discoideum Ledebour, Icon. Pl. 2: t. 153. 1830; Cancrinia brachypappus C. Winkler; Chrysanthemum ledebourianum Y. Ling; Matricaria ledebourii (Schultz Bipontinus) Schischkin; Microcephala discoidea (Ledebour) K. Bremer et al.; Tanacetum ledebourii Schultz Bipontinus.

Herbs, perennial or biennial, 5-20 cm tall, with slender taproot; stems erect or ascending, branched from base, scapose, conspicuously lanate. Leaves all basal, petiolate; leaf blade oblong or ovate, 2-4 × 0.5-1.5 cm, 2-pinnatipartite, both surfaces gray-green, white lanate or subglabrescent; primary lateral lobes 2-5-paired; ultimate lobes ovate or broadly linear. Capitula solitary, terminal, several per plant; peduncle 4-15 cm. Involucre coryliform, 7-12 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, herbaceous, abaxially sparsely lanate to glabrescent, scarious margin hyaline; outer phyllaries linear-lanceolate, 3-4 mm, inner ones longer, linear-oblong. Receptacle conspicuously convex, conical-globose. Florets yellow, 5-lobed. Achenes ca. 2 mm, 5-ribbed, glabrous. Corona scales 5. Fl. and fr. Apr-Sep.

Mountain slopes, Gobi Desert; 500-1200 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].