紫茎飞蓬 zi jing fei peng

Herbs, perennial, 5-7 cm tall, caespitose; rhizome subwoody or tuberiform, collar clad with marcescent leaf bases. Stems several or single, ca. 1 mm in diam., erect or ascending, purple, branched in middle part, rarely simple, sparsely hirsutulous, strigillose, short-stipitate glandular below capitula. Leaves: basal rosulate, present at anthesis, narrowly winged petiolate, blade spatulate to oblanceolate, 1.5-2.5 × 0.3-0.6 cm, surfaces glabrous, 3-veined, base attenuate, margin entire or 2- or 3-serrulate, ciliate, apex obtuse or rounded; cauline 3-5, sessile, blade linear-lanceolate or linear, 0.5-2 × 0.1-0.3 cm, surfaces strigillose, often stipitate glandular (not seen), 1- or inconspicuously 3-veined, margin strigose-ciliate, apex acute. Capitula 2 or 3 in corymbiform synflorescences, rarely solitary, 0.8-1.5 cm in diam. Involucre hemispheric, 5-8 × 5-12 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, purple, linear-lanceolate, ca. 0.5 mm wide, apex acuminate, inner shorter than to equaling disk florets, abaxially sparsely hirsute-villous, strigillose, often stipitate glandular at base (not seen), outer 2-3 mm, inner ca. 8 mm, margin narrowly scarious. Ray florets laminate, 2- or 3-seriate, 6-7 mm, tube ca. 3 mm, hairy, lamina almost filiform, purple, ca. 0.3 mm wide, not patent, involute when dry; disk florets yellow, 4-4.5 mm, tube ca. 1.7 mm, limb narrowly funnelform, sparsely hairy, lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm, purplish. Achenes oblong, compressed, ca. 2 mm (immature), strigose. Pappus yellowish, 2-seriate, outer bristles ca. 0.5 mm, inner ca. 5 mm. Fl. Aug-Sep.

● Grasslands on mountain slopes. Sichuan (Kangding).