台湾假还阳参 tai wan jia huan yang shen

Crepidiastrum koshunense (Hayata) Nakai var. taiwanianum (Nakai) Yamamoto; Ixeris taiwaniana (Nakai) Stebbins; Lactuca taiwaniana (Nakai) Makino & Nemoto.

Herbs 20-40 cm tall, perennial, sometimes subshrubs, rosulate, with a woody caudex. Stems several from rosette leaf axils, ascending to erect, branched in apical third or half, leafy; older stems basally woody, developing in middle third a secondary leaf rosette with a single or few ± ascending-erect leafy secondary flowering stems. Rosette leaves spatulate, 4-12 × 1-4 cm, glabrous, base attenuate, margin entire or denticulate, apex rounded. Lower stem leaves similar to rosette leaves but smaller, base semiamplexicaul. Middle and upper stem leaves broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, smaller than lower ones, base auriculately clasping, margin entire or faintly denticulate, apex mostly rounded. Synflorescence corymbiform, with several to many capitula. Capitula with 8-12 florets; peduncle slender. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 6-8 mm. Phyllaries glabrous; outer phyllaries few, ovate, longest ca. 1.5 mm, apex ± acute; inner phyllaries 8, apex subacute. Achene brownish, subfusiform, ca. 4 mm, scabrid, apically attenuate or with a less than 0.5 mm beak. Pappus white, ca. 3 mm. 2n = 10*.

● Littoral areas; near sea level to 200 m. S Taiwan.

Crepidiastrum taiwanianum is closely related to C. lanceolatum. Closer investigation should show whether its status as a separate species is actually justified.