星毛短舌菊 xing mao duan she ju

Chrysanthemum pulvinatum Handel-Mazzetti, Acta Horti Gothob. 12: 263. 1938; Brachanthemum nanschanicum Krascheninnikov.

Subshrubs, 15-45 cm tall; indumentum of stellate hairs. Old branches gray, twisted; young branches brownish, densely and appressed white powdery-puberulent. Petiole to 8 mm; leaf blade cuneate, elliptic, or suborbicular, 0.5-1 × 0.4-0.6 cm, gray-green, appressed powdery-puberulent, glabrescent, palmate-pinnately or pinnately 4- or 5-divided; segments linear; leaves below synflorescence 3-lobed. Synflorescence terminal, a solitary capitulum or irregular flat-topped cyme. Capitula apically solitary or 3-8; peduncles 2.5-7 cm. Involucres hemispheric or obconical, 6-8 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 4 rows, outer ones ovate or broadly ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, abaxially densely appressed powdery-puberulent, scarious margin brown, middle ones elliptic, 4-4.5 mm, abaxially densely and appressed powdery-puberulent, inner ones linear-oblanceolate, ca. 4 mm, abaxially glabrescent. Ray florets 5-15; lamina yellow, elliptic, apex minutely 2-denticulate. Achenes ca. 2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Mountain slopes, Gobi Desert; 1200-3200 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang.

Filatova (Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14a: 38. 2007) divided this species between two species: Brachanthemum pulvinatum with ovate ray floret lamina and smooth phyllary margins and B. nanschanicum with narrower, oblong ray floret lamina and lacerate-undulate phyllary margins.