225. Saussurea firma (Kitagawa) Kitamura, Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 9: 112. 1940.
硬叶风毛菊 ying ye feng mao ju
Saussurea ussuriensis Maximowicz var. firma Kitagawa, Rep. Exped. Manchoukuo Sect. IV, 4: 97. 1936; S. controversa Candolle var. firma (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; S. controversa f. sinuata (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; S. discolor (Willdenow) Candolle var. firma (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; S. discolor f. sinuata (Kitagawa) Kitagawa; S. ussuriensis f. sinuata Kitagawa.
Herbs 30-80 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect or ascending, simple or apically branched. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 3-12 cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 3-12 × 2-6 cm, leathery, abaxially grayish green to grayish white and sparsely arachnoid to densely tomentose, adaxially green, gland dotted, and subglabrous, base cordate to truncate, margin denticulate, apex acute to acuminate. Middle and upper stem leaves subsessile, gradually smaller upward on stem; leaf blade narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear. Capitula numerous, in a corymbiform synflorescence, pedunculate. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 4-7(-10) mm in diam. Phyllaries in 5-7 rows, straw-colored but apically usually purple, sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent, apex acute to subacute or shortly mucronate; outer phyllaries ovate, 2-3 × 1-2 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly oblong, 3-6 × 1-1.5 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 6-8 × 1-1.5 mm. Corolla purple, 1-1.2 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 5-6 mm, lobes ca. 4 mm. Achene 4-9 mm, glabrous. Pappus white; outer bristles 1-2 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 8-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 26.
Grasslands on mountain slopes, ravines; 1100-1800 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Russia (Far East)].
For Saussurea firma, the name S. discolor was misapplied by C. Y. Li (Fl. Liaoning. 2: 593. 1992) and W. Wang and C. Y. Li (Fl. Pl. Herb. Chin. Bor.-Orient. 9: 339. 2004). Saussurea discolor is a distinct taxon from the mountains of C Europe and is not present in Asia.