毛蕊苓菊 mao rui ling ju

Saussurea filifolia Regel & Schmalhausen, Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada 6: 312. 1880; Jurinea argentata C. Shih & S. Y. Jin; J. pilostemonoides Iljin; Pilostemon filifolius (Regel & Schmalhausen) Iljin.

Herbs 25-70 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or few, grayish green, erect, virgately branched from base. Leaves sessile, linear to filiform, 1-7[-10] × 0.1-0.2 cm, abaxially grayish white and densely arachnoid tomentose, adaxially green and glabrous, margin revolute, apex acute. Capitulum solitary at end of branches. Involucre obconic, 1-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 5-8 rows, purplish red, appressed, tomentose, apex not reflexed, acuminate, and cartilaginous; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 3-5 × 1-1.5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic, 5-13 × 1.5-2 mm; inner phyllaries broadly linear, ca. 14 × 1.5 mm. Corolla purplish red, 1.5-2 cm, tube 7-9 mm, limb 6-7 mm, lobes 3-4 mm. Anther connectives with few very fine long unicellular hairs. Achene blackish brown, obconic, 3-5 mm, apically densely glandular and with a dentate crown. Pappus bristles white or dirty white, plumose, 1-1.5 cm, not connate into a ring, persistent. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

Gravelly riversides, moist gorges, sandy places; 700-1000 m. C Xinjiang [Kazakhstan].

Jurinea pilostemonoides does not differ from J. filifolia, except by the glabrous anther connectives, which, however, can be glabrescent in J. filifolia as well.

Jurinea karategina (Lipsky) O. Fedtschenko, described from Tajikistan and also treated as Pilostemon karateginus (Lipsky) Iljin, is said to occur in Xinjiang as well (G. M. Shen, Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 258. 1999; Iljin, Fl. URSS 27: 711. 1962), but no specimens from China are known. It differs from J. filifolia by its broader, elliptic or oblong leaves, to ca. 10 × 1.5 cm, and by its smaller florets, with a corolla of 1-1.3 cm.