喀什风毛菊 ka shi feng mao ju

Herbs 14-25 cm tall, perennial. Caudex stout, apically branched, covered with dark brown remains of leaf sheaths. Stems several, ascending to erect, few branched. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; leaf blade narrowly obovate-elliptic, to 10 × 2.5 cm, pinnately lobed or pinnately divided, scabrid, hispid; lobe margins dentate, apex acute. Middle and upper stem leaves similar to lower leaves, gradually smaller upward on stem, shortly petiolate to subsessile; leaf blade small, not decurrent. Capitula in a densely corymbiform synflorescence. Involucre 6-10 mm in diam. Phyllaries in ca. 4 rows, apically purple and densely pubescent to glabrescent; outer phyllaries ovate, 3-4 mm, apex subobtuse; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic to linear, 4-12 mm, apex subacute. Receptacle with subulate bristles. Corolla pale purplish red, 1.4-1.6 cm, tube 6-8 mm, limb 7-8 mm. Achene pale brown, cylindric, 5-6 mm, glabrous. Pappus dirty white; outer bristles 3-5 mm, rigid, serrulate, persistent; inner bristles 1-1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Gravelly riverbanks in high mountain valleys, saline soils; ca. 3200 m. W Xinjiang (Wuqia) [Kyrgyzstan].

No specimens of Saussurea kaschgarica were seen by the present authors, and the description here is based on the treatments by Lipschitz (Fl. URSS 27: 509. 1962) and G. M. Shen (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 280. 1999).