糠秕风毛菊 kang bi feng mao ju

Herbs 5-12 cm tall, perennial. Caudex branched, apically covered with brown remains of petioles, with sterile leaf rosettes and flowering stems. Stem solitary, erect, simple, with glandular hairs. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 2-3.5 cm; leaf blade oblong, 5-8 × 1.4-2 cm, abaxially grayish white and densely tomentose, adaxially green and strigose, margin subentire, sinuolate, or rarely coarsely dentate with mucronate teeth, apex acuminate. Stem leaves similar to basal leaves. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre broadly campanulate, ca. 2 cm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 5 rows, yellowish green or slightly purplish red, with dark purple margin, densely pubescent; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, ca. 10 × 3 mm, apically herbaceous and reflexed; inner phyllaries linear, ca. 14 × 2 mm. Corolla purple, ca. 2 cm, tube 1.2-1.3 cm, limb ca. 7 mm, lobes 4-4.5 mm. Achene cylindric, 3-3.5 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles scabrid. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

● Alpine grasslands; 4300-4400 m. E Xizang (Qamdo).

Saussurea paleacea is apparently only known from the type collection. This taxon may be conspecific with S. limprichtii.