黑苞风毛菊 hei bao feng mao ju

Saussurea xanthotricha Handel-Mazzetti.

Herbs 1.5-5 cm tall, perennial, stemless or substemless, laxly caespitose. Caudex usually branched with several sterile and flowering leaf rosettes. Leaves petiolate; petiole purple, to 1.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic to spatulate-elliptic, 1-3.5 × 0.4-1 cm, abaxially white, densely tomentose, and with a conspicuous midvein, adaxially grayish green and densely villous, base cuneate-attenuate, margin entire or obtusely sinuate-dentate with purple mucronulate teeth, apex rounded to obtuse with a short mucro. Capitulum solitary, in center of leaf rosette. Involucre campanulate, 1-1.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, purplish brown and dark brown to blackish villous in distal part, apex acute to obtuse; outer phyllaries ovate, 9-11 × 4-6 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 12-13 × 3-4 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic-linear, 12-14 × 2-3 mm. Receptacle bristles few, triangular-subulate, to 1 mm. Corolla purple, 1.2-1.6 cm, sparsely gland-dotted, tube 5-8 mm, limb 6-8 mm, lobes 3.5-4 mm. Achene cylindric, 3-5 mm, gland-dotted. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles 3-5 mm, plumose; inner bristles 1.2-1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Sep.

● Alpine scree slopes, open rocky mountain slopes; 3500-4700 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

Saussurea melanotricha is very close to S. spatulifolia and probably not clearly separated at species level. The type specimen of S. xanthotricha from Sichuan holds an intermediate position between S. spatulifolia and S. melanotricha, combining the acuminate phyllaries with yellowish indumentum of the former with the sinuate-dentate leaf margins with purple mucros of the latter.