白花地胆草 bai hua di dan cao

Elephantopus bodinieri Gagnepain.

Herbs, perennial, 0.8-1 m tall or more. Rhizomes robust, obliquely ascending or procumbent, with fibrous roots. Stems erect, multibranched, angled, white villous. Basal leaves withered by anthesis, subsessile or shortly petiolate, lower leaves oblong-obovate, 8-20 × 3-5 cm, abaxially densely villous and glandular, adaxially rugose and verrucose, sparsely or densely puberulent, basally progressively attenuate into winged, rather amplexicaul petiole, margin mucronate-serrate, rarely entire, apex acute; upper leaves elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 7-8 × 1.5-2 cm; uppermost very small. Synflorescence laxly corymbose, aggregated into compound heads, surrounded by 3 leaflike bracts; bracts green, ovate-cordate. Capitula 12-20; peduncle slender, long. Involucre oblong, 8-10 × 1.5-2 mm; phyllaries green or sometimes apically purple-red, outer 4 lanceolate-oblong, 4-5 mm, glabrous or subglabrous, 1-veined, apex acute, inner 4 elliptic-oblong, 7-8 mm, sparsely adpressed shortly hairy and glandular, 3-veined, apex acute. Florets 4, white, funnelform, 5-6 mm, with slender tube; lobes lanceolate, glabrous. Achenes oblong-linear, ca. 3 mm, 10-ribbed, puberulent. Pappus sordid white, of 5 basally widened bristles. Fl. Aug-May. 2n = 22*.

Open slopes, roadsides, or thickets. Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan [widely distributed in tropical areas].