光果风毛菊 guang guo feng mao ju

Herbs 2-6 cm tall, perennial, stemless or shortly stemmed. Stem if present simple, 1-2 mm in diam., erect, covered at base with remains of petioles. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 2 cm; leaf blade linear-oblong to narrowly elliptic, 3-8 × 0.5-1.5 cm, pinnatisect, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and sparsely arachnoid; lateral segments 6-15 pairs, obliquely quadrangular or triangular, 3-6 × 2-6 mm, margin and apex mucronulate. Stem leaves 1-3, similar to basal leaves, 1.5-2.5 × 0.3-0.6 cm; lateral segments 3-6 pairs. Uppermost stem leaves linear, undivided, margin dentate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 5 rows, sparsely pilose, apically ± reflexed, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries ovate-elliptic, 7-8 × 2-2.5 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 7-12 × 2.5-3 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 12-14 × 1.5-2 mm, erect. Receptacle bristles subulate, 2-5 mm. Corolla dark purple, (1-)1.3-1.5 cm, tube 7-8 mm, limb 6-7 mm, lobes 3.5-4.5 mm. Achene cylindric, ca. 4.5 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus light brown; outer bristles 1-1.5(-2) mm, scabrid; inner bristles 1-1.1 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

● Alpine grasslands; 3800-4500 m. W Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan (Zhongdian).

Saussurea leiocarpa is very close to S. leontodontoides, only differing in the smooth, not transversely rugose, achene and in the arachnoid, not scabrid-strigose, indumentum on the adaxial leaf surface. Intermediate forms do occur. Saussurea leiocarpa is different from S. stoliczkae from W Xizang, with which it has been synonymized and confused in the literature.