细梗黄鹌菜 xi geng huang an cai

Crepis gracilipes J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 3: 396. 1881; Pseudoyoungia angustifolia (Tzvelev) D. Maity & Maiti; P. gracilipes (J. D. Hooker) D. Maity & Maiti; Tibetoseris angustifolia Tzvelev; T. gracilipes (J. D. Hooker) Sennikov; T. gracilipes subsp. duthiei D. Maity et al.

Herbs 3-10[-15] cm tall, perennial, rosulate, subacaulescent or dwarf, with taproot and lateral shoot-bearing roots giving rise to secondary rosette shoots. Caudex short, with residues of old leaf bases, not or weakly branched. Rosette leaves oblanceolate, elliptic, or narrowly elliptic, 2-5 × 0.3-1 cm, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite and sometimes lyrately so, sparsely pubescent, base attenuate into a petiole-like portion, margin entire to weakly sinuate-dentate; lateral lobes 3-6 pairs, opposite to subopposite, ovate to elliptic but basal lobes usually toothlike, apex rounded to obtuse; terminal lobe elliptic, apex rounded to obtuse. Capitula 3-14, clustered, directly from axils of rosette leaves or on a stalk, with 12-20(-30?) florets; stalk 1-4 cm, capillaceous, branched, sometimes reduced-leafy; peduncle capillaceous, 1-8 cm, ± pilose to apically ± tomentose, ± bracteate. Involucre broadly cylindric, 8-10 mm. Phyllaries dark to blackish green, abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, longest to 1/3 as long as inner ones, apex acute; inner phyllaries 8-10, adaxially glabrous, margin scarious, subapically usually plane, apex acute. Anther tube greenish to blackish. Style yellow upon drying. Achene dark, fusiform, ca. 4 mm, apex truncate. Pappus white, 5-7 mm, persistent. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

Forests, forest margins, grasslands; 2700-4800 m. Sichuan, Xizang [Bhutan, N India, Nepal].

Plants in which a delicate, sparsely branched stem with 2 or more capitula and 1 or more leaves is developed have been described as a separate subspecies (under the name Tibetoseris gracilipes subsp. duthiei) from India, Nepal, and China (Xizang). Corroborating Babcock and Stebbins (Publ. Carnegie Inst. Washington 484: 42. 1937), we have the impression that such plants merely represent more robust forms and that the transitions are fluent. Tibetoseris angustifolia, described from a single collection, differs according to the protologue only by narrower leaves, which hardly justifies its recognition as a separate species. The following two species appear very close to Youngia gracilipes, and their delimitation should be reassessed on the basis of more material.