蓼子朴 liao zi pu

Conyza salsoloides Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 5: 197. 1832; Inula ammophila Bunge ex Candolle; I. schugnanica C. Winkler.

Perennials. Stems up to 35 cm tall, lower part covered with white straight hairs, upper almost smooth, with numerous long, thin, spreading, thinly angulate, densely leaved branches. Leaves sessile, lanceolate or lanceolate-linear, lower ones 5-9 × 5-6 mm, upper ones 3-6 × 1.8-3 mm, all leaves thick, pubescent abaxially with white, long, straight hairs and dispersed golden, sessile glands, base almost cordate, margin entire, involute, apex acuminate, spreading. Capitula numerous, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., solitary at ends of sprigs. Involucre ca. 0.8 cm in diam., polyphyllous, multiseriate and with appressed phyllaries; phyllaries acute, upper part shortly pilose, external surface sparsely golden glandular and ciliate at margins, outer ones oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, ca. 3 × 1.2 mm, median linear, ca. 2 × as long as outer, ca. 0.4 mm wide, inner narrowly linear, 7-9 × ca. 0.3 mm. Ray florets yellow, 1.1-1.3 cm, longer than phyllaries by ca. 1/3; tube small, ca. 5 mm, shorter than pappus; lamina narrowly linear, 6-8 × 1-1.2 mm, 3- or 4-veined, tridentate, teeth ca. 0.8 mm. Disk florets yellow, as long as or slightly longer than pappus, 5-dentate, teeth smooth. Achenes brown, cylindric, 1.2-2 × ca. 0.2 mm, longitudinally finely ribbed, covered with dispersed golden, orbicular, sessile glands. Pappus 6-8 mm, with numerous bristles. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Dry grasslands, sand banks, alluvium; 500-2000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Mongolia, Russia].