珠芽垂头菊 zhu ya chui tou ju

Stems 1 or 2, erect, 8-25 cm tall, ca. 3 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, often purplish red, distally shortly black pilose. Basal leaves long petiolate; petiole 4-10 cm, glabrous, base sheathed; leaf blade abaxially purple, reniform or broadly reniform, 1-2.5 × 1.2-5 cm, glabrous, palmate veins prominent abaxially, margin shallowly crenate, apex rounded or retuse. Stem leaves 3 or 4, reniform, smaller distally, distalmost stem leaves with only sheath; sheath cucullate, inside with bulbil, black, ovate, ca. 4 mm. Capitulum solitary, nodding or semierect. Involucre hemispheric, 1-1.2 × 1.5-2 cm, outside dark brown pilose; phyllaries in 2 rows, oblong or linear-oblong, apex acute; inner phyllaries broader, 3-5 mm wide, margin broadly membranous. Ray florets yellow; lamina oblanceolate, 1.2-1.8 cm × 3-5 mm, apex truncate, 3- or 4-lobed; tube ca. 4 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, ca. 8 mm; tube ca. 2 mm; limb cylindric. Achenes oblong, ca. 3 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

● Grassy slopes, rocky slopes; 3000-4000 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.