巴塘风毛菊 ba tang feng mao ju

Herbs to 15 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, simple. Leaves petiolate; petiole 2.5-5 cm; leaf blade narrowly obovate or narrowly elliptic, 6-9 × 1-1.5 cm, abaxially grayish white, gland-dotted, and tomentose, adaxially green, gland-dotted, and scabrid with short articulate hairs, base attenuate, margin subentire and repand to sinuate-dentate, apex acute and mucronate. Uppermost stem leaves narrowly elliptic to linear, 3.5-6 × 0.2-0.8 cm. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, 1.5-2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, narrowly triangular-linear, sparsely villous, apex acuminate. Corolla purple, 1.4-1.5 cm, tube 9-10 mm, limb ca. 5 mm, lobes ca. 3 mm. Achene brown, cylindric, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Pappus pale yellow; outer bristles scabrid to barbellate, 1-3 mm; inner bristles 1.1-1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Alpine grasslands; ca. 5100 m. W Sichuan (Batang).

Saussurea limprichtii has long been misunderstood because the type was thought to be lost. This description is based on the rediscovered type material of H. Limpricht (at WRSL). The specimens from NW Yunnan (S. W. Liu, Fl. Yunnan. 13: 576. 2004) treated under S. limprichtii are clearly different from the type specimen from W Sichuan. They either belong to S. semilyrata or to a yet undescribed species. The real S. limprichtii is apparently only known from the type collection and may be conspecific with S. paleacea, described from adjacent E Xizang.