白花刺续断 bai hua ci xu duan

Morina alba Handel-Mazzetti, Anz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. 62: 68. 1925; M. leucoblephara Handel-Mazzetti; M. nepalensis D. Don var. alba (Handel-Mazzetti) Y. C. Tang ex C. H. Hsing.

Caudex covered with remnants of old leaf bases. Fertile stems 1-3, 10-40 cm tall. Rosulate leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, 10-20 × 0.5-1 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base attenuate, margins entire. Leaves on flowering stems 2-4-paired, similar to rosulate leaves but shorter; petioles folded, sheathing; lowermost pair often much smaller, subovate, usually spineless, with sheaths nearly as long as or longer than blades; uppermost pair of leaves densely spiny and much broader at base. Inflorescences capitellate, sometimes with 1 or 2 separate flower clusters below primary head; involucral bracts ovate, spinose, concave or folded; involucels sessile, tubular-campanulate, 4-7 mm, apex truncate, villous, with 12-16 irregular spines. Calyx green, tubular, 5-8 mm; tube 1-2.5 mm; limb usually with 2 lateral and 3 posterior teeth, margins villous. Corolla white, yellowish, or yellowish green; tube markedly curved, 12-20 mm, densely puberulent above; limb 5-lobed; lobes obcordate, ca. 3 mm. Filaments inserted at corolla throat. Style longer than stamens. Achenes columnar, 4-6 mm, glabrous to densely puberulent. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Subalpine or alpine meadows, forests; 2500-4100 m. SE Gansu (Tao He basin), S Qinghai, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [N India].