鸦葱 ya cong

Scorzonera austriaca var. plantaginifolia Kitagawa; S. sinensis (Lipschitz & Krascheninnikov) Nakai f. plantaginifolia (Kitagawa) Nakai.

Herbs 5-45 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Rootstock dark brown. Caudex woody, densely covered with brown fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues. Stems solitary or few, erect, unbranched, glabrous. Rosette leaves narrowly linear, linear-lanceolate, linear-elliptic, or narrowly elliptic, usually 3-35 × 0.2-2.5 cm, glabrous or occasionally base and sheath marginally arachnoid hairy, base long attenuate, margin flat, apex acute to acuminate. Stem leaves 2 to several, scalelike, lanceolate to subulate-lanceolate, base semiamplexicaul. Capitulum solitary. Involucre cylindric, usually 2.1-2.8 × 0.6-1.2 cm at anthesis, to 3.3 × 1.5 cm in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous or occasionally inner ones apically arachnoid hairy at margin, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded; outermost phyllaries triangular to triangular-ovate. Florets yellow, usually to 1.5-1.7 × as long as involucre. Achene whitish to pale brown, cylindric, 1.2-1.5 cm, with smooth or sometimes tuberculate ribs, glabrous. Pappus dirty white, usually 1.5-1.7 cm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jul. 2n = 14*.

Slopes, floodplains, grassy riverbanks and lake shores; 400-2000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia; C and SE Europe].

Scorzonera austriaca is the widespread and name-giving taxon of the highly polymorphic S. austriaca complex, to which the following five species belong, and which is in need of a modern revision covering its entire distribution area. The following two species appear to lack clear morphological discontinuities and seem thus doubtfully distinct at species rank.