长柄马兰 chang bing ma lan

Aster trichanthus Handel-Mazzetti; Kalimeris longipetiolata (C. C. Chang) Y. Ling.

Herbs, perennial, 50-70 cm tall, rhizomatous. Stems erect, simple, slender, villous. Leaves remote, thin, sparsely hairy, margin, adaxially along veins, and petiole densely villous, basally palmately veined, lateral veins 2- or 3-paired, reticulate veins ± conspicuous; basal leaves withered by anthesis or rarely persistent; lower cauline leaves long petiolate; petiole slender, 12-16 cm; blade broadly ovate, 6-7 × 4-6 cm, base truncate or shallowly cordate, margin coarsely serrate (teeth mucronulate), apex acute or cuspidate; middle leaves shortly petiolate; blade cordate, margin coarsely crenate; upper leaves gradually reduced, small, subentire, grading into linear-lanceolate bracts. Capitula 1 or 2, 3.5-4.5 cm. Phyllaries 2- or 3-seriate, equal, linear-oblanceolate, 5-6 mm, leaflike, apex acuminate, subulate-mucronate; inner phyllaries leaflike in upper part, hairy, margin scarious, erose. Ray florets ca. 30, bluish, tube ca. 2 mm, sparsely hairy near base, lamina linear, ca. 20 × 1-1.3 mm; disk florets yellow, ca. 3 mm, tube short, glabrous. Achenes (not seen; ovary) cylindric, ± compressed. Pappus dirty white, of scalelike bristles, 0.3-1 mm, unequal. Fl. Jul.

● Brooklet banks, valleys; ca. 2500 m. W Sichuan.

Aster longipetiolatus was not included in the revision of Kalimeris by Gu and Hoch (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 84: 762-814. 1997); its affinities require investigation. Specimens were not seen by one of us (Brouillet).