短茎紫菀 duan jing zi wan

Aster flaccidus Bunge f. tunicatus Onno.

Herbs, perennial, 5-12 cm, subcaespitose; rhizome thick, clad in hard, fibrous marcescent leaf remains; roots simple. Stems strigose, with densely long-stipitate glandular leaves. Leaves 4-7, ± equidistant, margin revolute, scabrous; basal leaves long petiolate, petiole base clasping; blade spatulate-lanceolate, 1-4 × 0.5-1 cm, thick, glabrous, base attenuate, margin serrulate, apex acute to rounded; cauline leaves sessile, oblong, 1.2-2 cm, abaxially ± hairy, midvein scabrous, adaxially glabrous, base clasping, apex obtuse (lower cauline leaves sometimes glabrous). Capitula terminal, solitary, 3.5-4 cm in diam. Involucres hemispheric, up to 1 cm; phyllaries equal, leaflike, lanceolate, ca. 2 mm wide, strigose, eglandular, apex acuminate, purplish tinged. Ray florets dark blue, tube ca. 2.3 mm, hairy, lamina linear, 10-12 × 1-1.2 mm; disk florets orange-yellow, ca. 5.3 mm, tube ca. 1.5 mm, tube and limb hairy, limb cylindric-funnelform, lobes narrowly triangular, ca. 0.9 mm, glabrous, somewhat purplish when dry. Achenes (immature) compressed, sparsely strigose, 2-ribbed. Pappus (immature) 3-seriate, yellowish; outer series of scales ca. 0.6 mm; bristles rigid, barbellate; inner series of bristles ca. 5 mm, acute; innermost bristles ca. 5.6 mm, slightly clavate. Fl. Jul.

● Alpine slopes; ca. 3900 m. NW Yunnan (Zhongdian).

According to Onno, Aster brevis is distinguished from A. flaccidus by its stout rhizomes and roots.

No specimens were seen by us.