紫茎垂头菊 zi jing chui tou ju

Cremanthodium acernuum R. D. Good; C. heterocephalum Y. L. Chen.

Stem solitary, erect, 10-25 cm tall, ca. 3 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally shortly white and brown pilose. Basal leaves long petiolate; petiole purplish red, 2-15 cm, base sheathed, distally shortly purplish red pilose or glabrous; leaf blade purplish red, reniform, 0.5-5 × 1.2-7 cm, glabrous, abaxially rarely initially shortly pilose, palmately veined, with white prominent reticulate veins on both surfaces, margin regularly denticulate, apex rounded or retuse. Middle to distal stem leaves 1 or 2, smaller, shortly petiolate or sessile, reniform to linear-lanceolate. Capitulum solitary, nodding or suberect. Involucre hemispheric, 0.8-1.6 × 1.5-2.5 cm, outside initially shortly pilose, glabrescent; phyllaries 12-14, in 2 rows, outer phyllaries lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate; inner phyllaries oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, to 5 mm wide, margin broadly membranous, apex acute or obtuse. Ray florets yellow; lamina oblong, 1-2 cm × 3-5 mm, apex obtuse, entire or lobed; tube ca. 1 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 6-9 mm; tube ca. 2 mm; limb cylindric. Achenes oblanceolate, ca. 4 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Grassy slopes, stream banks, gravelly areas on mountains, alpine meadows; 3000-5200 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Myanmar].