膜苞香青 mo bao xiang qing

Rhizome slender, somewhat woody; stolons ca. 12 cm, with brown squamiform leaves and terminal rosette leaves. Stems caespitose, erect, 15-45 cm, slender, unbranched, white or pallid arachnoid tomentose, rather sparsely leafy. Basal and lower leaves relatively small, caducous and lost by anthesis; middle leaves erect or somewhat expanding, oblanceolate-oblong or linear-oblong, 2.5-4.5 × 0.5-2 cm, base attenuate, decurrent on stem and becoming a narrow or cuneate wing, margin flat, apex obtuse or acute; upper leaves small, linear or linear-lanceolate, with small or withered cusp; all leaves thin, both surfaces tomentose or abaxially densely pallid arachnoid and mixed with tentacles, inconspicuously 3-veined. Capitula 7-10 or more, corymbiform, terminal on stems; peduncle 1-5 mm. Involucre campanulate, 6-7 × 5-6 mm; phyllaries 5- or 6-seriate, thin, base hyaline, apex white, not hyaline; outer phyllaries light brownish, ovate, ca. 3.5 mm, apex obtuse; middle ones elliptic-lanceolate, ca. 6 mm, apex acute; innermost ones lanceolate-linear, ca. 5.8 mm, with a claw ca. 1/3 or 1/2 of full length. Receptacle with fimbrillate appendage. Center of predominantly female capitula with female florets and a few male florets; predominantly male capitula with male florets only. Corolla ca. 4 mm. Pappus ca. 5 mm, male florets pappus relatively incrassate at tip of apex, dentate. Achene oblong, ca. 0.7 mm, with dense mammilla. Fl. Jul.

● Alpine hillside grasslands; 2500-2800 m. W Gansu (Qingshui, Xiahe), N Sichuan (Aba, Songpan).

No specimens of this species were seen by the second author.