灰枝鸦葱 hui zhi ya cong

Scorzonera tuberosa Pallas var. sericeolanata Bunge, Beitr. Fl. Russl. 200. 1852; S. rubroviolacea Godwinski.

Herbs 8-20 cm tall, perennial, with a globose tuber some cm below surface. Stems solitary or few, weak, erect, sparsely branched, white sericeous pubescent. Basal leaves few, linear, 5-20 × 0.2-0.8 cm, arachnoid hairy, glabrescent, or adaxially glabrous, base attenuate, margin flat, apex acuminate. Stem leaves similar to basal leaves but base ± amplexicaul. Synflorescence laxly corymbiform, with 5-7 capitula. Involucre narrowly cylindric to obconic, ca. 6 mm in diam. Phyllaries abaxially densely pubescent; outermost phyllaries narrowly triangular, apex acute. Florets yellow. Corolla with purplish red veins. Achene cylindric, 5-7 mm, densely sericeous. Pappus whitish, usually 1-1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Deserts, semiconsolidated sand dunes; 300-1400 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia (SW Asian part), Uzbekistan].

C. H. An (in Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 401. 1999) also reported the similar and related Scorzonera tuberosa Pallas for Xinjiang. That species is distributed in E and S European Russia and Kazakhstan and had not been reported before from farther east. The corresponding material has not been seen by the present authors, and the report needs confirmation.