帕米尔鸦葱 pa mi er ya cong

Herbs 4-13 cm tall, perennial, with an ellipsoid tuber to some cm below surface. Caudex with pale brown or pale yellow glabrous leaf sheath residues becoming lacerate and subfibrous with age. Stems few, slender, erect to arched-erect, sparsely branched apically, glabrous, leafy. Basal leaves linear, 4-8 × 0.1-0.2 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate. Stem leaves similar to basal leaves but smaller. Synflorescence sparsely corymbiform, with few capitula or capitulum solitary. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 1.3-1.5 × ca. 0.4 cm at anthesis, more than 2 cm in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially arachnoid hairy, apex acute to obtuse; outermost phyllaries ovate to narrowly ovate, 4-5 × 2-3 mm. Florets yellow. Achene glabrous, not seen when fully mature. Pappus dirty white, ca. 2 cm or more, scabrid apically or for most of length. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Alpine plains, alpine meadows; 3300-3600 m. Xinjiang (Taxkorgan).

Scorzonera pamirica is closely related and very similar to the widespread S. pusilla, and their delimitation should be reassessed when more material is available. See also note under S. aniana.