短星菊 duan xing ju

Erigeron ciliatus Ledebour, Icon. Pl. 1: 24. 1829; Aster angustus Torrey & A. Gray; A. brachyactis S. F. Blake; A. ciliatus (Ledebour) B. Fedtschenko (1915), not Walter (1788), nor Muhlenberg ex Willdenow (1803), nor Nuttall (1840); A. latisquamatus (Maximowicz) Handel-Mazzetti; Brachyactis ciliata (Ledebour) Ledebour; B. latisquamata (Maximowicz) Kitagawa; Conyza altaica Candolle; E. latisquamatus Maximowicz.

Herbs, annual, [7-]9-60[-70+] cm tall. Stems erect, usually branched from base, branches then decumbent, often reddish below, upper half and branches sparsely to moderately pilosulose, densely leafy. Leaves: basal petiolate, fallen at anthesis; cauline sessile, linear or linear-lanceolate, 2-6 × 0.3-0.6 cm, reduced in size upward, base subclasping, slightly decurrent, margin entire, sometimes serrulate, apex acute. Capitula disciform, numerous, in racemiform or paniculiform synflorescences, rarely solitary at ends of branches. Involucre campanulate; phyllaries 2- or 3-seriate, subequal or outer longer, linear, acute, outer leaflike, 3-6 × ca. 1 mm, margin ciliate, margin of inner scarious below, leaflike above. Ray florets 75-95+ in 4 or 5 series, reduced to tube (sometimes with an extremely reduced lamina remnant, latter sometimes pinkish), 2-3 mm, apex sparsely hairy; disk florets white with pink-tipped lobes, 3.5-5 mm, limb narrowly funnelform, ca. 2 mm, lobes erect, triangular, 0.2-0.3 mm. Achenes purplish, narrowly obovoid, [1.5-]2-2.5 mm, moderately strigillose, 2-4-veined. Pappus of many white, fine, barbellulate bristles, outer very short, inner 6-7 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

Salt marshes, meadows, damp riverbanks, marshes and lakes in plains and steppes, usually saline; 500-1500 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Uzbekistan; E Europe, North America].

This North American species crossed the Bering Sea during the Pleistocene.