红花镇苞菊 hong hua zhen bao ju

Herbs or subshrubs, 25-60 cm tall, perennial. Stems virgately branched, sparsely pubescent or glabrous, floccose lanate at base; branches slender. Leaves glabrous, glabrescent, or sparsely tomentose, somewhat fleshy. Lower leaves oblong, 2-6 × 0.2-0.5 cm, margin dentate to pinnatifid; lobes few, distant. Upper leaves oblong to linear, 5-15 × ca. 1 mm, margin entire. Peduncles ca. 1 mm in diam. Capitula erect or almost so. Involucre ovoid, 0.9-1.5 cm in diam., base truncate to obtuse. Phyllaries imbricately appressed, in many rows, lanceolate-subulate, 2-12 × 0.5-1 mm, apex acuminate with tip somewhat deflexed; outer and middle phyllaries glabrous or slightly tomentose; inner phyllaries appressed pubescent toward apex. Corolla pink, 1.3-1.6 cm, glabrous; lobes glabrous. Achene brown, oblong, smooth. Pappus elements white, decreasing in length outward, scabrid; innermost pappus elements 12-13 × 0.2-0.3 mm, flattened.

Dry rocky slopes. Xizang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Pakistan].

No material from China was seen by the present authors, and the description here is based on the original publication and specimens from Kashmir.