草原雪莲 cao yuan xue lian

Herbs to 30 cm tall, perennial. Stem solitary, erect, simple, densely yellowish white villous, covered at base with brown residue of petioles. Lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 3-6 cm; leaf blade oblong, broadly linear, or narrowly elliptic, 15-18 × 1-1.2 cm, sparsely yellowish white villous, base attenuate, margin sinuate and sparsely denticulate, apex obtuse. Middle stem leaves sessile, narrowly ovate-elliptic, to 11 × 0.5 cm, margin entire. Upper stem leaves sessile, narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 1.3-6 × ca. 0.2 cm, base amplexicaul, apex acuminate. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre hemispheric, ca. 1.3 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 rows, purplish red, densely yellowish white villous, apex acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly oblong-elliptic, ca. 14 × 4 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, ca. 1.7 × 0.3 cm; inner phyllaries narrowly triangular-linear, ca. 18 × 1-2 mm. Corolla purplish red, ca. 1.7 cm, tube ca. 1 cm, limb ca. 7 mm. Achene pale brown, oblong, ca. 3.5 mm. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles ca. 3 mm; inner bristles ca. 1 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Forest margins, montane meadows; 2000-3100 m. NW Yunnan (Dali, Lijiang).

Saussurea pratensis was erroneously placed in S. subg. Amphilaena by Lipschitz (Rod Saussurea, 64. 1979) and by C. Shih and S. Y. Jin (FRPS 78(2): 30. 1999), but it does not show the colored bracts typical for that subgenus.