肉叶雪兔子 rou ye xue tu zi

Saussurea acaulis Klatt; S. amblyophylla C. Winkler.

Herbs 1-4 cm tall, perennial, monocarpic, stemless. Taproot 1-2 mm in diam. Caudex short, with brown remains of petioles. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole 5-10(-30) mm, basally widened; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or spatulate, 1-3 × 0.5-1.7 cm, fleshy but leathery and rigid when dry, both surfaces green, abaxially glabrous, adaxially sparsely arachnoid but glabrescent, base cuneate-attenuate, margin crenulate to subentire, apex obtuse, rounded, or rarely acute. Uppermost leaves suborbicular. Capitula 2-10, in center of leaf rosette, in a hemispheric synflorescence 1.5-3 cm in diam., sessile. Involucre campanulate, (6-)8-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, membranous, purplish red, glabrous, apex obtuse to rounded; outer phyllaries elliptic to obovate, 5-6(-8) × 2.5-3 mm; middle phyllaries obovate, 6-7 × 2.5-3 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic, 7-8 × 1.5-2 mm. Receptacle bristles brown, 0.2-0.8 mm. Corolla bluish purple, 6-7 mm, tube 3-3.5 mm, limb 3.5-4 mm, lobes 1.5-2 mm. Achene brown, cylindric to obconic, ca. 4 mm, wrinkled, glabrous. Pappus brown; outer bristles 2-4 mm, plumose, corkscrewlike twisted; inner bristles 6-7 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

High mountain pastures and meadows by rivers and lakes, marshlands; 4000-5200 m. Qinghai, S Xinjiang, Xizang [NW India, Kashmir, ?Pakistan].