青藏风毛菊 qing zang feng mao ju

Herbs 2-6 cm tall, perennial, stemless or shortly stemmed. Caudex elongate, 2-3 mm in diam., simple or few branched, covered with dark brown remains of petioles. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole 3-10 mm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 1-3.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm, abaxially white and densely tomentose, adaxially grayish green and sparsely arachnoid, base rounded to cuneate, margin sparsely denticulate or entire, apex acute, acuminate, or obtuse. Capitula (1 or)2-5, in a hemispherically condensed corymbiform synflorescence or rarely solitary, subsessile. Involucre campanulate, 6-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3-5 rows, brownish or greenish yellow, villous, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate, 4-6 × 2-3 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 5-8 × 1.5-2 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 8-10 × 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle bristles 1-2 mm. Corolla purplish red, 1.2-1.5 cm, tube 4-6 mm, limb 5-5.5 mm, lobes ca. 3 mm. Achene 3-4 mm, glabrous. Pappus basally pale brown, apically dirty white; outer bristles scabrid. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

● Alpine meadows, riverbanks; 4200-5200 m. Qinghai, Xizang.

Saussurea ovatifolia may be very closely related to the geographically distant S. elliptica, known from the Karakorum range and attributed to S. sect. Saussurea. Records of S. ovata in the sense of S. W. Liu (Fl. Qinghai. 3: 469. 1996) are probably referable to S. ovatifolia.