日本毛连菜 ri ben mao lian cai

Aster esquirolii H. Léveillé; Picris davurica Fischer ex Hornemann; P. davurica var. koreana (Kitamura) Kitagawa ex Kitamura; P. hieracioides Linnaeus subsp. japonica (Thunberg) Krylov; P. hieracioides subsp. koreana (Kitamura) Voroschilov; P. japonica var. koreana Kitamura; P. koreana (Kitamura) Voroschilov; P. mairei H. Léveillé.

Herbs 30-120 cm tall, short-lived perennial, with a taproot. Stem erect, branched mostly apically, hirsute with dark green to blackish rigid 2-hooked hairs, leafy. Basal leaves (withered at anthesis) and lower stem leaves oblanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 12-20 × 1-3 cm, both surfaces with rigid 2-hooked hairs, basally attenuate into a petiole-like portion, margin sharply dentate to sinuate-dentate, apex acute to acuminate. Middle stem leaves sessile, lanceolate, base semiamplexicaul, smaller but otherwise like lower stem leaves. Upper stem leaves linear-lanceolate. Synflorescence corymbiform to paniculately corymbiform, with many capitula. Peduncle slender, hirsute like stem and branches. Involucre cylindric-campanulate to ovoid, 1-1.2 cm. Phyllaries green to blackish green, abaxially darkish to dark hirsute with 2-hooked hairs mainly along midrib, apex acute to acuminate; outer and inner phyllaries linear-lanceolate. Florets yellow. Achene reddish brown, fusiform, 3-5 mm, apex truncate. Pappus ca. 7 mm, caducous. 2n = 10*.

Grasslands on mountain slopes, forests, open places in forests, waste places in forests, by fields, river margins, alpine meadows; 600-3700 m. Anhui, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, E Russia].

According to V. N. Vassiljev (Fl. URSS 29: 221-222. 1964), Picris japonica can, moreover, be distinguished from P. hieracioides by the ligule of the corolla being less than 2 × as long as the tube, whereas it is 2-3 × as long as the tube in the latter species.