Acilepis clivorum (Hance) H. Robinson; Vernonia kingii C. B. Clarke.

Herbs, perennial, 50-90 cm tall. Stems erect, simple or rarely branched, angled or striate, puberulent, densely in upper part. Petiole 3-5 mm, puberulent; leaf blade oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 7-12 × 1.5-5 cm, papery, abaxially puberulent and glandular along veins, adaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent along midrib, lateral veins 7- or 8-paired, veins abaxially convex, veinlets reticulate, base broadly cuneate or rounded, margin entire basally, sparsely serrate toward leaf apex, apex acuminate or shortly acuminate. Synflorescences terminal and subterminal, panicles small, divaricately branched, ± grouped into thyrse. Capitula up to 4, 6-8 mm in diam.; peduncles slender, 8-21 mm, puberulent; bracteoles mostly clustered below involucre, ca. 1 mm, linear. Involucre bowl-shaped, 6-7 × 6-8 mm; phyllaries 5-seriate, green or purple-red at apex, scarious, upper part arachnoid pubescent and glandular, apex acute, mucronulate, outer short, subulate, inner 6-8 × ca. 1 mm, with narrowly scarious margins. Receptacle flat, fimbriate, foveolate. Florets 15-20; corolla purple, tubular, 6-8 mm, glabrous, sparsely glandular. Achenes oblong-cylindric, 3-3.5 mm, 10-ribbed, hispidulous and glandular. Pappus 2-seriate, white; outer setae short; inner setae ca. 6 mm, scabrid-barbellate. Fl. Oct-Feb.

Dunn and Tutcher (Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew, Addit. Ser. 10: 138. 1912) treated material of this species as Vernonia saligna.

Open places in valleys or thickets by lakes; ca. 1900 m. Guangdong, S Yunnan [Myanmar].