硬叶粉苞菊 ying ye fen bao ju

Prenanthes aspera Schrader ex Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 3: 1539. Dec 1803, not Michaux (Mar 1803); Chondrilla stricta Ledebour; Youngia aspera (Poiret) Steudel.

Herbs 60-110 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Stem erect, branched particularly higher up, basally densely hirsute otherwise grayish white tomentose. Rosette leaves and lower stem leaves narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 6-18 × to 5 cm, withered at anthesis, runcinately pinnate, leathery, abaxially with arachnoid hairs and with long bristles on veins. Middle and upper stem leaves broadly ovate to lanceolate, base subamplexicaul, margin dentate, smaller than lower stem leaves but otherwise similar. Synflorescence paniculiform. Capitula with usually 9-12 florets. Involucre 1.2-1.4 cm, arachnoid hairy. Phyllaries grayish green; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate, longest ca. 2 mm; inner phyllaries 8, usually ± with bristles on midvein. Achene body 3-4 mm, apically with a corona of 5 unlobed or sometimes to ± 3-lobed erect linear-lanceolate scales to 1 mm, below corona with tubercles and short scales in several rows; beak (1-)3-4(-5) mm, without articulation. Pappus 6-8 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Mountain slopes; 1100-1400 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, SC Russia, Tajikistan].

Chondrilla canescens Karelin & Kirilov, which is distinguished from C. aspera chiefly by 3-lobed corona scales of the achene body (Leonova, Fl. URSS 29: 562-563. 1964), was also treated in FRPS (80(1): 296. 1997) as a species from Xinjiang but was not included by C. H. An (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 430. 1999). According to Tzvelev (Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14b: 84. 2008) the two are probably conspecific. We follow C. H. An, treating the Chinese plants all as C. aspera.