岳麓紫菀 yue lu zi wan

Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous. Stems erect, 40-60 cm tall, slender, canaliculate, woody at base, covered with spreading or crisped short hairs, shortly branched at middle part, with scattered leaves. Leaves abaxially sparsely hispidulous, rarely sparsely hispidulous on veins, adaxially sparsely puberulent, glabrescent, sometimes glandular, margin ciliate, midvein abaxially prominent, lateral veins indistinct; basal leaves absent at anthesis; lower cauline leaves broadly winged petiolate; blade oblong or narrowly elliptic, 3-7 × 0.7-1.5 cm, base attenuate, margin entire or sparsely serrate (teeth mucronate), apex obtuse or acute; upper leaves often sessile, 0.5-2.5 mm, margin entire, apex rounded. Capitula 1-3, axillary at short branches and arranged in paniculate corymbs, ca. 1.5 cm in diam.; peduncles to 2 cm; bracts few, lanceolate, leaflike. Involucres campanulate or obconic, 4-5 × 5-6 mm; phyllaries ca. 4-seriate, unequal; outer phyllaries dark brown, ovate, 1-2 × ca. 1 mm, pubescent, apex mucronate; inner phyllaries oblong, ca. 4 × 1.2 mm, margin shortly ciliate, apex hairy. Ray florets ca. 10, white, tube ca. 3 mm, lamina ca. 4 × 1.5-2 mm; disk florets ca. 4 mm, tube ca. 1.5 mm, sparsely hairy, lobes ca. 1.5 mm. Achenes oblong, ± compressed, 1.5-2 mm, strigose. Pappus white, bristles to 4 mm. Fr. Jul-Sep.

● Roadsides on slopes; 600-900 m. Hunan, Jiangxi.

No specimens of Aster sinianus were seen by one of us (Brouillet).