大花紫菀 da hua zi wan

Herbs perennial, 35-45 cm tall; rhizomes robust (to 6 mm in diam.); roots dense, fibrous, bearing rosulate phyllome. Stems single, erect, stout (5-7 mm in diam.), purple-red above, angled and finely canaliculate, hirsute (hairs ca. 4 mm) below, densely leafy below, densely pilose above. Leaves: both surfaces densely pilose, margin hirsute-ciliate, midvein stout, hirsute, abaxially triplinerved, veins prominent, lateral veins fine; basal leaves withered or present at anthesis, broadly winged petiolate; blade oblong-spatulate, 7-12 cm, base attenuate, margin subentire toward middle, apex obtuse or rounded; middle cauline leaves sessile, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, smaller, apex obtuse or acute. Capitula terminal, solitary, ca. 6.5 cm in diam. Involucres hemispheric, ca. 2 cm in diam.; phyllaries 3-seriate, squarrose, oblong or linear-lanceolate, ca. 10 × 1.5-2 mm, leaflike, base hardened, outer phyllaries densely hirsutulous, inner phyllaries pilose distally, margin ± reddish, apex obtuse or ± acute. Ray florets ca. 100, purple-red, lamina 25-30 × ca. 3.4 mm; disk florets yellow, ca. 6 mm, sparsely hairy. Achenes (immature) ± compressed, ca. 2 mm, densely strigose. Pappus purplish brown, of few unequal bristles, barbellate throughout, bristles shorter than disk florets. Fl. Aug.

● Slopes; ca. 4000 m. W Sichuan (Zhegu Shan).

Aster megalanthus is closely related to A. tongolensis but differs by being taller and in having more ray florets with broader laminae and longer disk florets.