小叶兔儿风 xiao ye tu er feng

Herbs, perennial, 11-25 cm tall. Leaves basally clustered; petiole 2-5 cm, wingless, strigose; leaf blade ovate to oblong, 2-3.5 × 1.5-2 cm, subleathery, palmate-pinnate veined, abaxially moderately strigose, adaxially subglabrous, base abruptly rounded, then cuneately narrowed into petiole, margin denticulate, apex acute-mucronate. Capitula shortly pedunculate, arranged in spikes, 3-flowered; involucre 5- or 6-seriate, narrowly campanulate, ca. 4 mm in diam.; phyllaries dull purple, subleathery, glabrous, outer phyllaries ovate, 1-2 mm, inner linear to elliptic, ca. 10 mm. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous, corollas white, tubular, 8.5-11 mm, anther appendages truncate. Achenes oblong to obovoid, ca. 2 mm, apically pilose; pappus 6.5-8 mm. Fl. Oct.

● Open grassy slopes; 500-1000 m. Guangdong.

This species is similar to Ainsliaea yunnanensis in its leaves long petiolate, leaf blades ovate with cuneate base, and capitula sessile but is quite different in its foliar trichomes straight (vs. T-shaped), involucre 8-10 mm (vs. 13-15 mm), and achenes apically pilose (vs. pilose).