阿尔金风毛菊 a er jin feng mao ju

Herbs 8-40 cm tall, perennial. Rootstock stout, apically branched, densely covered with remains of leaf sheaths. Stems solitary or 2 or 3, ca. 5 mm in diam., erect, simple or branched from base. Leaves petiolate; petiole to 2 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 5-10 × 0.2-0.8 cm, thick, fleshy, both surfaces green and gland-dotted but otherwise glabrous or sparsely pubescent, base attenuate, margin entire or remotely denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Capitula 1-4, at end of stem or branches and sometimes also axillary, solitary or in a congested corymbiform or racemiform synflorescence, subsessile. Involucre campanulate, 8-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, pilose, gland-dotted, apex acute; outer phyllaries ovate, 6-7 × 4-5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 7-10 × 1.5-4 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 10-11 × 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle bristles to 2 mm. Corolla purple, 0.9-1.1 cm, gland-dotted, tube 4-6 mm, limb 4-5 mm. Achene obconic, ca. 3 mm, apex with a denticulate crown. Pappus brownish to reddish; outer bristles 2-3 mm; inner bristles ca. 1 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

● Salt marshes; 1900-3000 m. SE Xinjiang (Ruoqiang).

No specimens of Saussurea aerjingensis were seen by the present authors. The description here is based on the original description and on the treatment by G. M. Shen (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 294-296, 478-479. 1999).