川续断 chuan xu duan

Dipsacus asperoides C. Y. Cheng & Ai; D. asperoides var. emeiensis Z. T. Yin; D. cyanocapitatus C. Y. Cheng & Ai; D. daliensis Ai; D. daliensis var. multifidus H. B. Chen; D. enshiensis C. Y. Cheng & Ai; D. kangdingensis Ai & F. X. Feng; D. simaoensis Y. Y. Qian; D. yulongensis Ai & L. J. Yang.

Herbs, perennial, up to 2 m tall. Taproots simple or branched, fusiform, up to 1.2 cm in diam., fleshy. Stems erect, branched, 4-8-ridged, ridges sparsely covered with retrorse spines. Basal leaves rosulate; petiole up to 25 cm; leaf blade pinnatisect, rarely entire, 15-25 × 5-20 cm, adaxially white setose, or papillate-setose, abaxially densely setose along veins; segments 5-9; terminal segment largest, up to 15 × 9 cm; lateral ones usually obovate or spatulate; lower cauline leaves similarly long petiolate, leaf blade entire, but mostly pinnatifid, with 5-9 segments; terminal segment lanceolate, up to 11 × 5 cm, margin sparsely large serrate, apex acuminate; upper cauline leaves shorter petiolate, lanceolate, undivided or 3-segmented. Heads globose, 1.5-3.2 cm in diam.; peduncles up to 50 cm; involucral bracts 5-7, leaflike, lanceolate or linear, hispid; bracts obovate, 7-11 mm, hispidulous, rostrate, rostrum 3-5 mm, setose; involucels 4-ribbed, obovoid-columnar, 5-8 mm, white puberulent, apex 8-dentate. Calyx 4-ribbed, disk-shaped, ca. 1 mm, undivided or 4-lobed, outside hispidulous. Corolla yellowish or white, funnelform, 9-11 mm; tube ca. 2.5 mm; lobes unequal, outside puberulent. Stamens exserted; anthers purple. Achenes obovoid-columnar, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 18.

Margins of forests, thickets, among herbs, by streams, roadsides; 1500-3700 m. Chongqing, N Guangdong (Lianxian), N and W Guangxi (Longsheng, Napo, Xing’an), Guizhou, W Hubei (Xingshan), Sichuan, S Xizang (Cona, Nyalam), Yunnan [India, Myanmar].