膜苞垂头菊 mo bao chui tou ju

Cremanthodium stenactinium var. evillosum Handel-Mazzetti.

Plants grayish green or bluish green. Stem solitary, erect, 40-50 cm tall, ca. 1.1 cm in diam. at base, middle to proximal part glabrous, distalmost part brown pilose. Basal leaves broadly petiolate; petiole 4-8 cm, to 2.5 cm wide, glabrous, base broadly sheathed; leaf blade oblong or elliptic, 6-15 × 2-6 cm, pinnate-parallel or parallel veined, glabrous, base narrowed into a petiole, margin entire, apex acute or obtuse. Stem leaves 5 or 6, erect; middle to proximal stem leaves oblong, 4-8 cm, tubular-amplexicaul, apex obtuse, mucronate; distalmost stem leaves bracteal, membranous, apex obtuse. Capitula 1-13, in raceme, rarely solitary, nodding; peduncles 0.5-8 cm, brown pilose; leaflike bracts yellowish white, ovate, membranous. Involucre hemispheric, 1.3-1.5 × 1.5-3 cm, outside brown pilose or glabrescent; phyllaries 12-16, in 2 rows, elliptic or oblong, 6-8 mm wide, apex acute or acuminate; inner phyllaries broadly membranous at margin. Ray florets pale yellow; lamina linear-lanceolate, 3-7 cm × 1.5-2.5 mm, apex long acuminate; tube ca. 5 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, ca. 1 cm; tube ca. 3 mm. Achenes yellowish brown, cylindric, ca. 5 mm. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. Jul-Sep.

● Grasslands, stream banks; ca. 3600 m. NW Sichuan, NE Xizang.