准噶柄果菊 zhun ga bing guo ju

Podospermum laciniatum (Linnaeus) Candolle var. songoricum Karelin & Kirilov, Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 15: 396. 1842; Scorzonera songorica (Karelin & Kirilov) Lipschitz & Vassilczenko.

Herbs usually 15-40 cm tall, biennial to perennial?, rosulate, glabrous or sparsely arachnoid hairy. Caudex with complete leaf sheath residues. Stems few, sparsely branched apically, sparsely leafy. Rosette leaves linear-elliptic or narrowly elliptic to elliptic, pinnatipartite to pinnatisect, sometimes not divided, base attenuate and petiole-like; lateral lobes few, in middle third of blade, linear, linear-lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, to 1 cm; terminal lobe much longer than lateral lobes, narrowly elliptic, linear-elliptic, or linear. Stem leaves linear-elliptic to linear, mostly undivided. Synflorescence sparsely corymbiform, with few capitula. Capitula long pedunculate. Involucre cylindric, 1-1.2 × 0.5-0.6 cm at anthesis, to 2 × 1 cm in fruit. Phyllaries sparsely arachnoid hairy and glabrescent, often subapically corniculate; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular to lanceolate, longest ca. 1/2 or more as long as inner linear-lanceolate phyllaries. Florets yellow, slightly longer than involucre. Achene gray, cylindric, 1-1.2 cm, ribs smooth, carpopodium 1/5-1/4 as long as achene body. Pappus dirty white, 1.1-1.2 cm. Fl. and fr. May-Jun. 2n = 14, 28.

Steppes; ca. 1000 m. Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].

No material of Podospermum songoricum from China has been seen by the present authors, but its presence in Xinjiang is confirmed by C. H. An (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 389. 1999). The description is based on Lipschitz (Fl. URSS 29: 40. 1964) and material from neighboring countries.