蚤草 zao cao

Inula pulicaria Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 882. 1753; Aster pulicaria (Linnaeus) Scopoli; Diplopappus vulgaris (Gaertner) Bluff & Fingerhuth; Pulicaria inuloides Vahl ex Hornemann, nom. illeg. superfl.; P. prostrata Ascherson, nom. illeg. superfl.; P. uliginosa Gray, nom. illeg. superfl.

Herbs, annual, entire plant tomentose-pilose pubescent or lanate-villous (Pulicaria vulgaris var. villosa Hohenacker). Stems erect or ascending, almost from base, more rarely branched from middle, clothed above with villous tomentum of rather long thin hairs and dispersed fine yellowish transparent sessile or very shortly stalked glands, less densely pubescent below. Leaves (0.7-)1-3(-40) × 0.2-0.8(-1) cm, lower ones oblong, basally narrowed into very short petiole, others sessile, oblong-lanceolate with truncately rounded base, somewhat undulate at margin, entire, or slightly finely distantly toothed, apex acute or obtuse; both surfaces, but more densely abaxially, tomentose-pilose or sublanate and, also mostly densely, finely sessile or subsessile glandular, glands transparent golden yellow. Capitula semiglobose, numerous, (10-)20-80(-100) per plant, borne in a few or solitarily at ends of sprigs in loose irregularly paniculate synflorescences. Involucre 5-8(-10) mm in diam., semiglobose; phyllaries numerous, arranged in 5 or 6 rows, inner ones longer, all appressed, linear or narrowly oblanceolate-linear, villous-pilose and finely dotted sessile glandular outside, apex acute and sometimes unbent. Radiate marginal florets short, not exceeding involucre or only slightly so, almost as long as or slightly longer than tubular disk florets; corollas of ray florets 2.5-3.5 mm, almost as long as style, slightly longer than inner row of pappus, outside, mainly in upper part, beset with dispersed transparent golden yellow glands and simple hairs; lamina erect, almost oval, ca. 1 mm wide; corolla of tubular disk floret ca. 2 mm, slightly longer than inner row of pappus, outside also as corollas of ray florets covered with glands and simple hairs. Achenes 1.5-1.8 × ca. 0.5 mm, equal in length to inner row of pappus bristles or even slightly longer, oblong, slightly compressed and longitudinally costate, entire surface not densely shortly appressed pilose. Inner row of pappus consisting of 6-12 denticulate-scabrid hairs, ca. 1.5 mm, somewhat unequal in length; outer pappus shortly coroniform, ca. 0.3 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep. 2n = 18.

Dry grasslands, sandy places, riverbeds, roadsides; 600-2800 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe].