毡毛紫菀 zhan mao zi wan

Herbs, perennial, ca. 50 cm tall (lower part not seen). Stems slender above middle, branched, puberulent, upper part white velutinous, densely or loosely leafy in upper part. Leaves abaxially gray-green, adaxially somewhat shiny, (lower leaves not seen); middle leaves sessile or shortly petiolate (petiole ca. 1.5 mm); blade lanceolate, 4-7.5 × 0.9-1.6 cm, abaxially densely velutinous, adaxially glabrous, villosulous at base and on veins, thin, base slightly rounded or subcuneate, margin slightly revolute, entire, scabrous, triplinerved, veins ± prominent abaxially, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, apex acuminate, sometimes falcate, mucronate. Capitula 2 or 3 at ends of branches, in ± corymbiform synflorescences; shortly pedunculate. Involucres campanulate, 4-5 mm; phyllaries 4- or 5-seriate, unequal; outer phyllaries ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, abaxially puberulent; inner phyllaries oblong, ca. 4 mm, margin narrowly scarious, apex rounded to obtuse, thick. Ray florets not seen; disk florets yellow, 3.4-3.8 mm, tube 1.2-1.3 mm, limb narrowly campanulate, lobes lanceolate, 1.1-1.2 mm, apically glandular and villous. Achenes brown, narrowly oblong, slightly compressed, ca. 2.9 mm, sparsely strigose, moderately so distally, pale 5- or 6-ribbed. Pappus reddish brown, 2-seriate; inner series ca. 3 mm, acute; innermost series 3.3-3.6 mm, clavate. Fl. Jul.

● Thickets on mountains; ca. 200 m. Guangxi.

Ray florets were not observed by us on the available specimens of Aster velutinosus; the capitula on the type specimen are too immature. On the fruiting specimen, however, there is no sign of ray florets, including on a head that was not fully opened; only disk florets were seen there.