平苞川木香 ping bao chuan mu xiang

Jurinea platylepis Handel-Mazzetti, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 13: 658. 1937; Vladimiria platylepis (Handel-Mazzetti) Y. Ling.

Herbs 7-12 cm tall, perennial, stemless or shortly stemmed. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 10 cm; leaf blade obovate, ovate, or elliptic, 5-18 × 5-13 cm, pinnately lobed or pinnatifid, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and arachnoid only along midrib, base truncate or cuneate, margin pinnately dentate; lobes 2 or 3 pairs, obliquely broadly triangular to obliquely ovate, margin spinulose-denticulate, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute; terminal lobe semiorbicular to irregularly rhombic, apex obtuse to rounded. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosette or terminal on stem. Involucre broadly bowl-shaped, 3.5-6 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, leathery; outer phyllaries broadly ovate, 1.4-1.8 × 1-1.5 cm, apex rounded to obtuse; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic to elliptic, 2-2.5 × 0.5-1 cm, apex obtuse to acute; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 2.5-3 × 0.3-0.5 cm, apex acute. Corolla purplish red, ca. 3 cm, tube ca. 2 cm and slender, limb 8-10 mm, lobes 4.5-5 mm. Style branches 3.5-4.5 mm, slender. Achene obconic, ca. 8 mm. Pappus bristles in many rows, yellowish white, barbellate, 2.5-3 cm. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.

● Grasslands, thickets on mountain slopes; 3100-3400 m. SW Sichuan.