糙叶斑鸠菊 cao ye ban jiu ju

Acilepis aspera (Buchanan-Hamilton) H. Robinson; Eupatorium pyramidale D. Don; Vernonia pyramidalis (D. Don) S. N. Mitra; V. roxburghii Lessing; V. thorelii Gagnepain; Xipholepis aspera (Buchanan-Hamilton) Steetz.

Herbs, perennial, 1-2 m tall. Stems erect, rigid, woody at base, 6-7 mm in diam., simple or rarely branched, green or reddish purple tinged, striate, pale fulvous hispidulous or subglabrous in lower part. Petiole very short to almost absent; leaf blade oblanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, rarely elliptic, 5-12 × 1.5-4.5 cm, stiffly papery, abaxially densely hispidulous, both surfaces glandular, adaxially papillose-hispidulous, lateral veins 7-10-paired, veins abaxially prominent, veinlets reticulate, base narrowly cuneate, margin serrate, obscure or subentire in lower part, apex acuminate or acute. Synflorescences terminal or subterminal, panicles usually (2 or)3-5, dense, flat-topped. Capitula 10-15 mm in diam., shortly pedunculate or subsessile. Involucre campanulate, ?10-12 × ca. 15 mm; phyllaries 5- or 6-seriate, purplish red at apex, ovate, oblong, or linear, 3-12 mm, sparsely pubescent or ± glabrescent, apex mucronulate. Receptacle flat, foveolate. Florets ca. 30; corolla reddish purple, tubular, 7-8 mm; lobes linear, glandular. Achenes oblong-cylindric, 2-2.5 mm, 10-ribbed, puberulent. Pappus 2-seriate, sordid white or ± reddish later; outer setae few, very short; inner setae 8-9 mm, scabrid-barbellate. Fl. Oct-Mar.

Open grasslands on slopes, roadsides; ca. 1400 m. Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

The epithet was first introduced by Roxburgh as "Eupatorium asperum" (Hort. Bengal. 61. 1814), which is a nomen nudum. Merrill (Lingnan Sci. J. 5: 182. 1927) treated material of this species as Vernonia teres (a synonym of V. squarrosa).