麻花头蓟 ma hua tou ji

Carduus serratuloides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 825. 1753; Cirsium asiaticum Schischkin; Cnicus serratuloides (Linnaeus) Roth.

Herbs to 1.2 m tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, branched above, ribbed, unwinged, with sparse long multicellular hairs; synflorescence branches usually sparsely cobwebby. Leaves undivided, concolorous, green, surface smooth but with long multicellular hairs. Middle cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, 10-15 × 1.5-3 cm, auriculate semiamplexicaul, fringed with spinules less than 0.5 mm, apex acute. Upper cauline leaves similar but narrower and gradually smaller upward. Capitula erect, laxly corymbose. Involucre ovoid, 1.5-2 cm in diam., glabrous or sparsely cobwebby. Phyllaries imbricate, in ca. 7 rows, lacking marginal spinules, wings, and scarious appendage, abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries triangular, ca. 6 × 1.2 mm, apex acuminate and tipped with a ca. 1 mm spinulose acumen; middle phyllaries ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, ca. 7 × 2-2.2 mm, tipped with an acumen less than 0.5 mm; inner phyllaries lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 8-15 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acuminate and scarious. Florets bisexual. Corolla purplish red, ca. 2 cm, tube ca. 1 cm. Achene brownish, ca. 4 mm. Pappus bristles white, ca. 1.5 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 34.

Forests on mountain slopes, by rivers, by water; 1200-2600 m. Xinjiang (Altay Shan) [Mongolia, Russia].