壮观蓍 zhuang guan shi

Herbs, perennial, (15-)25-35(-50) cm tall, with short rhizomes; stems few, erect or slightly ascending, simple or branched near top, ± densely lanate-floccose, densely leafy. Middle stem leaves sessile; leaf blade ovate or oblong-elliptic, (2-)3-6 cm, 2-pinnatisect, lanate-floccose; primary segments few, distant especially toward base, linear, 10-15 mm; secondary segments lanceolate or linear, pinnatifid, lobules lanceolate, 0.5-1(-2) mm. Synflorescence a dense, terminal, rounded panicle. Capitula many. Involucre ovoid, less often cylindric-ovoid, 1.5-2(-2.5) mm in diam.; phyllaries keeled, pale, scarious margin narrow, usually white. Paleae white, membranous, lanceolate, slightly shorter than floret. Ray floret lamina white or yellowish white, orbicular-reniform to semicircular, (0.6-)1-1.6(-1.9) mm, apex truncate, unequally 3-toothed. Achenes oblong, ca. 1 mm.

Open grasslands, forest margins, naturalizing in disturbed sites. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan; SW Asia (Caucasus, Turkey), C and S Europe].

Achillea nobilis is apparently known from China only by a single 19th century gathering by Karelin and Kirilov. A similar record for the European A. magna Linnaeus, which is not otherwise recorded from C Asia, is most likely a misidentification of A. nobilis.