蒙新风毛菊 meng xin feng mao ju

Saussurea paradoxa Lipschitz.

Herbs 30-80 cm tall, perennial. Stems solitary or few, erect, simple or branched in upper part, narrowly winged. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, obovate, or oblong, 5-20 × 2.5-5 cm, thick, fleshy, lyrate, pinnately lobed, or undivided, both surfaces green, scabrous, and appressed pubescent, base cuneate, margin sinuate-dentate or entire, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves shortly petiolate or sessile, narrowly ovate, obovate, elliptic, or linear, 2.5-5 × 0.5-2 cm, margin entire. Capitula clustered 2-6 at end of stem and branches, in a corymbiform synflorescence, shortly pedunculate. Involucre campanulate, 5-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows; outer phyllaries narrowly ovate, 2-4 × 1-2 mm, apex acuminate with a cartilaginous mucro; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 3-8 × 1-2 mm, appendage pink, widened, and membranous. Receptacle densely bristly. Corolla pink, 1.2-2 cm, tube 6-12 mm, limb 6-8 mm, lobes ca. 5 mm. Achene light brown, cylindric, ca. 3.5 mm, ribbed. Pappus white; outer bristles 0.5-3 mm; inner bristles [0.8-]1.2-1.4 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Salt meadows, alkaline soils; 400-1900 m. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia].

No specimens of Saussurea grubovii from China were seen by the present authors. The description here is based on images of the type specimens and on the treatments by Lipschitz (Fl. URSS 27: 506. 1962) and G. M. Shen (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 272. 1999).