尼泊尔风毛菊 ni bo er feng mao ju

Centaurea taraxacifolia D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 167. 1825, not Saussurea taraxacifolia (Lindley ex Royle) Wallich ex Candolle (1838); Aplotaxis nepalensis Candolle, nom. illeg. superfl.; Eriostemon taraxacifolius (D. Don) Lessing; Saussurea chapmannii C. E. C. Fischer; S. nepalensis Sprengel, nom. illeg. superfl.

Herbs 20-30 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or 2, erect, simple, covered at base with fibrously lacerate remains of petioles. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole 1-7 cm; leaf blade oblong to narrowly obovate-elliptic, 4-18 × 1-3 cm, runcinate-pinnately lobed, abaxially pale green, subglabrous, adaxially green; lateral lobes 4-10 pairs, narrowly triangular to semiorbicular, 3-15 × 3-18 mm, margin mucronate-dentate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves 1 or 2, smaller than lower leaves. Capitulum solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, 0.8-1.7 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows, apically blackish green to purple, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-ovate, ca. 10 × 4 mm; inner phyllaries ca. 1.9 × 0.3 cm. Receptacle bristles 5-11 mm. Corolla purple, 1.8-2.3 cm, lobes 3.5-6 mm. Achene cylindric, 3.5-4.5[-6] mm, ribbed, smooth, glabrous, apex with a short crown. Pappus brown; outer bristles 2-3(-6) mm, plumose; inner bristles 1.3-1.8 cm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 32.

Alpine grasslands, thickets, river valleys, by trails; 3500-4200 m. S Xizang (Yadong) [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].

Saussurea nepalensis is illegitimate because Sprengel cited Centaurea taraxacifolia in synonymy but did not take up the epithet, which was at that time still available in Saussurea. Candolle also should have used the earlier epithet, "taraxacifolia," when he transferred the name to Aplotaxis. When C. B. Clarke validated the nomen nudum S. eriostemon by Wallich, another nomen nudum, S. taraxacifolia, used for a different taxon by Wallich, had already been validated by Candolle, so the earliest epithet "taraxacifolia" was no longer available in Saussurea.