甘青风毛菊 gan qing feng mao ju

Saussurea ruoqiangensis K. M. Shen.

Herbs 8-20 cm tall, perennial, densely caespitose. Caudex stout, much branched, with many leaf rosettes and flowering shoots, densely covered with remains of leaf sheaths, forming hard cushions. Stem solitary, 2-3 mm in diam., erect, simple. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 2 cm, base and sheath adaxially densely white lanate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to linear, 2-6 × 0.3-0.5 cm, both surfaces green, abaxially villous, adaxially sparsely villous but glabrescent, base cuneate-attenuate, margin revolute, entire, or crenulate, apex acute or obtuse. Stem leaves similar to rosette leaves, sessile, gradually smaller upward on stem. Capitula 5-12, in a densely congested corymbiform synflorescence, shortly pedunculate. Involucre narrowly campanulate, 8-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 4 or 5 rows, straw-colored, apically densely villous, apex acuminate to acute; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-ovate, 5-7 × 3-4 mm, apex acuminate; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 7-10 × 1.5-3 mm, apex acute. Receptacle bristles ca. 1 mm. Corolla pale red, 0.9-1.3 cm, tube 4-7 mm, limb 4-6 mm, lobes 2.5-3 mm. Achene brown, 3-5 mm, transversely rugose. Outer pappus bristles white, 2-3 mm, barbellate; inner bristles grayish brown, 8-9 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

● Alpine scree slopes, rocky dry mountain slopes; 2900-4300 m. Gansu, Qinghai, SE Xinjiang (Ruoqiang).