紫花亚菊 zi hua ya ju

Chrysanthemum purpureiflorum H. Ohashi & Yonekura.

Subshrubs, 4-25 cm tall, with thick woody rootstock. Old branches pale brown; young branches densely tomentose. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade elliptic or obliquely elliptic, 1-2 × 0.8-1.5 cm, both surfaces gray-white, densely and thickly tomentose, palmately 3-5-fid or lobed, or palmate-pinnately 3-5-fid or -lobed; lobes elliptic or narrowly elliptic. Synflorescence a terminal flat-topped cyme, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Capitula 5-10. Involucres campanulate, ca. 5 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 4 rows, abaxially tomentose, especially outer and middle ones, scarious margin dark purple, outer ones narrowly ovate or elliptic-ovate, ca. 3.5 mm, middle and inner ones narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, ca. 5 mm. Florets purple above middle; marginal female florets 6, corolla narrowly subulate, ca. 2 mm, apex 3- or 4-denticulate; disk florets many, corolla tubular. Achenes ca. 2.5 mm. Pappus absent.

● Alpine meadows, thickets, gravel mounds; 4800-5300 m. Xizang.