帚状鸦葱 zhou zhuang ya cong

Scorzonera divaricata Turczaninow var. foliata Maximowicz; S. divaricata var. virgata Maximowicz; S. muriculata C. C. Chang; S. pseudodivaricata var. leiocarpa C. H. An; S. rugulosa C. C. Chang.

Subshrubs or perennial herbs, 7-50 cm tall. Rootstock ca. 9 mm in diam. Caudex unbranched or more rarely branched, with somewhat fibrous and lacerate leaf sheath residues. Stems some to many, grayish green, rigid, herbaceous, sparsely to moderately divaricately branched in apical half, puberulent, glabrescent, or glabrous, leafy; branches virgate, slender, spreading-erect. Basal leaves crowded, linear, early deciduous. Stem leaves linear to filiform, usually 1-9 cm × 0.5-5 mm, horizontally spreading to spreading-erect, straight or somewhat hooked, often falcate, pubescent, glabrescent, or glabrous; upper stem leaves progressively smaller but mostly still leaflike. Capitula many, terminal, with usually 7-12 florets. Involucre cylindric, usually 1.5-1.8 cm at anthesis, 1.8-2.5 × 0.5-0.8 cm in fruit. Phyllaries puberulent; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to linear-lanceolate, longest 1/2-2/3 as long as inner phyllaries; inner phyllaries usually 5 or 6. Florets yellow. Achene brownish, dark green, or blackish, cylindric, 7-8 mm, with elevated smooth or tuberculate ribs, glabrous. Pappus dirty white to straw-colored, 1.3-1.8 cm. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.

Gravelly deserts, dry slopes, along streams, sandy soils; 600-3100 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, ?Sichuan, Xinjiang [Mongolia].

Scorzonera pseudodivaricata has often been confused with S. divaricata, hence the name, but both species are actually well distinct.

A report by Ostenfeld (in Hedin, S. Tibet 6(3): 29. 1922) of Scorzonera divaricata var. virgata Maximowicz (being a synonym of S. pseudodivaricata) was erroneously treated by Tzvelev (Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14b: 122. 2008) as "S. divaricata Turczaninow var. virgata (Candolle) Maximowicz" and, consequently, taken as a substantiation for the presence of the W Himalayan S. virgata Candolle in Xinjiang and C Asia, which is, however, clearly erroneous.