花莲兔儿风 hua lian tu er feng

Herbs, perennial, ca. 20 cm tall. Leaves basally clustered; petiole 1-1.5 cm, wingless; leaf blade deltate, 1-1.5 × 1-1.5 cm, palmate-pinnate veined, base cordate, margin obscurely denticulate, apex acute. Capitula sessile, arranged in spikes, 3-flowered; involucre campanulate; outer phyllaries ovate, inner linear to lanceolate. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous, corollas tubular, ca. 10 mm, 5-lobed. Achenes oblong to elliptic, densely pilose; pappus unknown. Fl. Jan.

● About 3000 m. Taiwan.

This species is very similar to Ainsliaea apiculata var. apiculata in its leaves long petiolate, leaf blades deltate, and capitula arranged in spikes. The only difference is that A. paucicapitata has leaf blades shallowly 5-lobed (vs. 5-angled) and leaves basally rosulate (vs. leaves clustered above stem base). No material of this species was available, so the description is based on the original diagnosis and a photograph of the type distributed by TI.