Saussurea ionodasys Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 30-50 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, branched, narrowly winged, with rusty multicellular articulate hairs. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 1.5-3 cm, winged, wing margin sparsely dentate or entire; leaf blade oblong to ovate, 3-10 × 2.5-6 cm, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green, scabrid, and with rust-colored multicellular articulate hairs, base subcordate to truncate, margin dentate, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute. Middle stem leaves shortly petiolate to sessile; petiole if present winged, wings or leaf base decurrent on stem; leaf blade oblong, narrowly ovate-elliptic, or linear, smaller upward on stem. Capitula 2-12 at end of branches, in a corymbiform or paniculiform synflorescence, pedunculate. Involucre cylindric, 7-9 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 5 rows, subglabrous, apex subacute to rounded; outer phyllaries ovate, 2.8-3 × ca. 1.5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 5-8 × 1.8-2 mm; inner phyllaries linear, ca. 9 × 1 mm. Corolla purple, ca. 1 cm, tube ca. 5 mm, limb ca. 5 mm. Achene pale brown, 2-3 mm, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles ca. 2 mm, scabrid; inner bristles ca. 9 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Pinus forests, grassy slopes; 1900-3800 m. NE Chongqing, W Sichuan, NW Yunnan (Lijiang).