截叶蓝刺头 jie ye lan ci tou

Herbs to 45 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, branched below middle, sparsely cobwebby. Leaves leathery, abaxially gray to grayish green and thinly cobwebby, adaxially green, glabrous, and shiny. Lower cauline leaves sessile, lanceolate, ca. 10.5 × 5.5 cm, base truncate, margin with spine-tipped teeth. Middle cauline leaves similar but gradually smaller upward. Uppermost cauline leaves lanceolate to elliptic. Pseudocephalia ca. 4 cm in diam. Capitula ca. 1.3 cm. Phyllaries 20 or 21, abaxially glabrous; outermost phyllaries oblanceolate, ca. 5 mm, unequal in length, 1/3-1/2 as long as involucre, claw margin sparsely long ciliate, distal portion broadly elliptic, cartilaginous, margin ciliate, and apex acuminate; middle and inner phyllaries oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 0.8-1.3 cm, distal half of margin sparsely shortly appressed ciliate. Florets ca. 1.3 cm. Corolla blue, glabrous, tube ca. 5 mm. Achene ca. 6 mm, hairs yellowish. Pappus scales linear, to 2 mm, unequal in length, connate for up to proximal half. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Mountain slopes. Jiangsu (Tongshan).