莲沱兔儿风 lian tuo tu er feng

Herbs, perennial, 25-70 cm tall. Leaves in basal rosette; petiole 4-8 cm, wingless, strigose; leaf blade ovate, ovate-oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, 5-14 × 3-9 cm, subleathery, palmate-pinnate veined, abaxially densely red strigose, adaxially strigose, base deeply cordate, margin sparsely callose-denticulate, ciliate, apex acute or obtuse. Capitula shortly pedunculate, arranged in panicles, 3-flowered; involucre cylindric, 3-4 mm in diam.; phyllaries ca. 5-seriate, papery, glabrous, outer phyllaries ovate, 2-2.5 mm, inner oblong, ca. 9 mm. Florets bisexual, chasmogamous and cleistogamous (at different seasons). Chasmogamous floret corollas tubular, 7-9 mm, deeply 5-lobed, lobes oblong, unequal, anther appendages apiculate. Achenes fusiform, ca. 2 mm, ribbed, densely pilose; pappus dark yellow, 6-8 mm. Fl. Apr-Jun. Cleistogamous floret corollas closed, tubular, minutely 5-lobed, ca. 5 mm, hidden in pappus. Achenes ca. 2.5 mm; pappus ca. 6 mm. Fl. Oct-Dec.

● Stream banks, dense forests; 100-800 m. Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan.

This species is very similar to Ainsliaea cavaleriei, A. fragrans, and A. rubrinervis in its leaf blade ovate to oblong, leaf base deeply cordate, and petioles villous, but it differs by its phyllaries glabrous and leaf blade ± concolorous.