克什米尔雪莲 ke shi mi er xue lian

Herbs 16-42 cm tall, perennial. Caudex usually unbranched. Stem solitary, 3-7 mm in diam., erect, simple. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 7.5-23 × 1.2-3 cm, both surfaces green, scabrous, and densely glandular hairy, margin sinuate-dentate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves sessile, 5.5-15 × 1-2.5 cm, base semiamplexicaul. Uppermost stem leaves sessile, elliptic or obovate and boat-shaped, 1.5-8 × 1-3.7 cm, membranous, half-enclosing synflorescence, both surfaces yellowish rose, margin dentate, apex acuminate. Capitula 3-8, in a condensed corymbiform synflorescence 3-10 cm in diam., pedunculate. Involucre obconic to campanulate, 1-2.5(-3) cm in diam. Phyllaries in 3-5 rows, straw-colored with dark margin and distal part, villous, apex acute to acuminate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular, 9-12 × 1.5-3 mm; middle phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 12-15 × 1-2.5 mm; inner phyllaries linear, 15-18 × 1-2 mm. Receptacle bristles (1-)3-4.5 mm. Corolla purple, 1.6-1.9 cm, tube 9-10 mm, limb 7.5-9 mm, lobes 4.2-5.2 mm. Achene brown, cylindric to obovoid, 3.5-5 mm, obtusely 5-7-ribbed. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles 2.8-5 mm; inner bristles 1.2-1.4 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 32 (as Saussurea bracteata).

Glacier moraines, rocky slopes, scree slopes; ca. 5200 m. SW Xinjiang (Yecheng) [NW India, Kashmir, Pakistan].

The only record of Saussurea schultzii in China is from the N declivity of the Karakorum range, where it was collected only twice in the first half of the 20th century.