城口风毛菊 cheng kou feng mao ju

Saussurea flexuosa var. penicillata Franchet; S. tsinlingensis Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 50-100 cm tall, perennial. Rhizome stout. Stem solitary, erect, apically branched. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Lower and middle stem leaves petiolate; petiole 2-7 cm, winged and usually with a pair of lobes; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, or narrowly ovate-elliptic, 6-17 × 4-9 cm, abaxially grayish white and densely arachnoid tomentose, adaxially green, scabrid, and sparsely strigose, base cordate, truncate, or cuneate, margin serrulate or sinuate-dentate, apex acuminate. Upper stem leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade gradually smaller upward on stem, narrowly elliptic, base cuneate, margin denticulate or entire. Capitula numerous or few, in a laxly corymbiform or paniculiform synflorescence, pedunculate. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 7-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, apically red to blackish purple, sparsely arachnoid lanate; outer phyllaries ovate, 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm, apex acute, with a black straight mucro; middle phyllaries ovate-elliptic, 3-7 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acute; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 7-10 × 1.5-2 mm, apex acute to obtuse. Corolla red, 1-1.1 cm, tube 4-5 mm, limb ca. 6 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, ca. 4 mm, glabrous. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 2-4 mm, scabrid; inner bristles 9-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Forests, forest margins, thickets, near trails, meadows; 1300-2000 m. Chongqing, Gansu, Henan, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, Sichuan.