高风毛菊 gao feng mao ju

Herbs 1-2 m tall, perennial. Stem solitary, ca. 1 cm in diam., erect, branched from middle or apically, hollow. Basal leaves usually withered at anthesis, petiolate. Middle stem leaves sessile or subsessile; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to narrowly ovate-elliptic, 6-15 × 1-4 cm, both surfaces green and strigose, abaxially glandular, margin entire or irregularly dentate, apex acute to acuminate. Upper stem leaves narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear. Capitula numerous, in a long and spreading corymbiform-paniculiform synflorescence. Involucre cylindric to narrowly campanulate, 5-7 mm in diam. Phyllaries greenish, colored in apical part, pubescent, apex subobtuse to obtuse; outer phyllaries ovate to ovate-oblong; inner phyllaries linear-oblong. Receptacle bristles ca. 3 mm. Corolla bluish purple, ca. 1.4 cm, tube ca. 7 mm, limb ca. 7 mm. Achene smooth, 7-8 mm. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles ca. 3 mm; inner bristles 8-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Steppe meadows, thickets. N Xinjiang (Tacheng) [Kazakhstan].

No specimens of Saussurea elata from China have been seen by the present authors. The description here is based on plants from outside the Flora area, as well as on the treatments by Lipschitz (Fl. URSS 27: 422. 1962) and G. M. Shen (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 285. 1999).