毛果鸦葱 mao guo ya cong

Scorzonera austriaca Willdenow var. hebecarpa C. H. An.

Herbs to 17 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Rootstock yellow, obconic, ca. 2 cm in diam. Caudex densely covered with brown fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues. Stems few, unbranched, glabrous. Rosette leaves narrowly lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, linear-elliptic, or linear, to 15 × 0.2-0.6(-1.5) cm, glabrous, base attenuate, margin undulate, apex usually recurved and acuminate. Stem leaves 2 or 3, brown, scalelike, narrowly lanceolate to subulate-lanceolate. Capitulum solitary. Involucre campanulate to subglobose, to 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially glabrous, apex acute to obtuse; outermost phyllaries triangular to ovate-triangular, to 7 × 2.5 mm. Florets yellow. Achene cylindric, ca. 1 cm, with smooth ribs, shortly villous. Pappus dirty yellow, ca. 1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Apr-May. 2n = 14.

Mountain slopes; 1300-1800 m. Liaoning, ?Nei Mongol, Xinjiang (Jinghe) [Mongolia].

Scorzonera ikonnikovii is very similar to S. austriaca (see also note there) but is distinguished by its villous achenes. Centered in Mongolia, it seems to be rare in China, reaching only into the NW and NE. Its delimitation from S. manshurica needs closer consideration.