灰叶香青 hui ye xiang qing

Rhizome long. Stems erect, 20-45 cm, lower parts thickish and woody, branching at base or having slender branches at lower axils, with long flowering branches at upper parts, densely hairy, lower leaves dense and upper leaves sparse. Rosette leaves obovate, ca. 1.5 × 1 cm, base cuneate and becoming short stalk; lower leaves caducous and lost by anthesis; middle leaves obovate, oblanceolate-spatulate, or oblong, 3-7 × 0.8-2 cm, base attenuate and forming a petiole, or almost equal width and base cuneate, semiamplexicaul, decurrent on stem and becoming a short wing, margin smooth, apex obtuse or rounded, rarely acute; upper leaves bractlike, lanceolate-linear or linear, apiculate; all leaves slightly thickish, ash-gray arachnoid lanate, mixed with capitate shortly stalked glandular hairs, midvein raised on both surfaces, conspicuously 3-veined or with another pair of veinlets near margin. Capitula considerably numerous and dense, compound corymbiform, terminal on stems and branches; peduncle ca. 3 mm. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 4-5 × ca. 4 mm; phyllaries 5-seriate; outer phyllaries light brownish, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, arachnoid tomentose; middle ones white or dirty white, oblong-lingulate, ca. 4 × 1-1.3 mm, apex rounded-obtuse; innermost ones narrowly oblong, ca. 3.5 mm, with a claw ca. 2/3 of full length. Receptacle with fimbrillate appendage. Center of predominantly female capitula with female florets and 1 or 2 male florets. Corolla 2.5-3 mm. Pappus slightly longer than corolla. Achene oblong, ca. 0.8 mm, papillate. Fl. and fr. Aug.

● Sunny roadsides; 3000-3100 m. E and S Xizang (Luliang, Nyingchi).

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