小车前 xiao che qian

Plantago lessingii Fischer & C. A. Meyer; P. minuta subsp. lessingii (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Tzvelev; P. mongolica Decaisne.

Herbs, annual. Taproot tenuous. Leaves basal; petiole inconspicuous; leaf blade linear, narrowly lanceolate, or spatulate-linear, 3-8 × 0.2-0.8 cm, rigidly papery, veins 3, base attenuate and decurrent onto petiole, margin entire, apex acuminate. Spikes capitate to shortly cylindric, 0.6-2 cm, densely flowered; peduncle (1-)2-12 cm, tenuous, along with rachis densely grayish to yellowish villous-lanate or sometimes glabrate; bracts broadly ovate to broadly triangular, 2.2-2.8 mm, ± villous or glabrous, keel extending to apex, apex obtuse. Sepals 2.7-3 mm, keel extending to apex, margin wide and scarious; lower sepals elliptic to broadly elliptic; upper sepals broadly elliptic. Corolla white, glabrous; lobes elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1.4-2 mm, patent to reflexed, apex acute to erose. Stamens adnate to near apex of corolla tube, exserted to included; anthers yellow when dry, suborbicular, ca. 1 mm. Pyxis ovoid to broadly ovoid, 3.5-4(-5) mm, circumscissile near base, with 2 seeds. Seeds yellowish brown, ellipsoid-ovoid to ellipsoid, (2.5-)3-4 mm, shiny, with a broad groove on ventral face; cotyledons vertical to ventral side. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Saline places, gravel beds, sandy areas, ravines, boggy places; 400-4300 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, S and SW Russia].