异色风毛菊 yi se feng mao ju

Saussurea brunneopilosa var. eopygmaea (Handel-Mazzetti) Lipschitz; S. eopygmaea Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 7-45 cm tall, perennial. Caudex branched, covered with fibrous remains of leaf sheaths, sterile leaf rosettes, and flowering stems. Stem solitary, erect, simple. Rosette and basal leaves sessile, narrowly linear, 3-10(-15) × ca. 0.1 cm, abaxially white and densely sericeous, adaxially green and glabrous, basally widened and sheathing stem, margin revolute and entire. Stem leaves similar to basal leaves. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre broadly campanulate, ca. 2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, apically purple, densely brown and white villous; outer phyllaries ovate-elliptic, 7-8 × 2-3 mm, apically usually reflexed, apex long acuminate; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 8-10 × 2-3 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly ovate to linear, 10-12 × 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle bristles 4-5 mm. Corolla purple to pink, 1.2-1.4 cm, sometimes gland-dotted, tube 6-7 mm, limb 5-7 mm, lobes 3.5-4 mm. Achene obconic, 3.5-4 mm, glabrous, apex with a denticulate crown. Pappus yellowish brown; outer bristles 1-2 mm, barbellate to plumose; inner bristles 0.9-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 30*.

● Alpine pastures and meadows, grassy slopes among rocks; 2900-4900 m. Gansu, Qinghai.

The plants treated as Saussurea eopygmaea by S. W. Liu (Fl. Qinghai. 3: 465 1996) usually lack the typical brown hairs on the phyllaries and belong to S. graminea. The type specimen of S. eopygmaea is intermediate between S. brunneopilosa and S. graminea var. ortholepis.