橡胶草 xiang jiao cao

Herbs 4-15 cm tall. Petiole pale green, winged; leaf blade light glaucous grayish green with a light green to rarely pinkish midvein, narrowly oblanceolate to broadly oblanceolate, 3-7(-10) × 1.2-3 cm, ± fleshy, very sparsely arachnoid to glabrous, undivided, margin remotely denticulate to regularly pinnatilobed to pinnatifid; lateral lobes 2 or 3(-5) pairs, broadly triangular, patent to subrecurved, proximal margin ± straight and entire, distal margin convex and entire, apex obtuse to subacute; interlobes not spotted, broad, margin entire; terminal lobe usually triangular, margin entire, apex subobtuse. Scapes light green or pinkish, ± overtopping leaves, arachnoid. Capitulum 2-3 cm wide. Involucre 5-8 mm wide, base obconic-rounded. Outer phyllaries 8-13, light green sometimes distally suffused purplish, not imbricate, linear-lanceolate to narrowly ovate, outermost ones 5.5-7 × (1-)1.2-2.2(-2.5) mm and 1/2-4/5 as long as inner ones but sometimes equaling them, loosely appressed to erect, border whitish light green or ± membranous and 0.1-0.3 mm wide, margin sparsely ciliate to glabrous, apex with a 2.5-4 mm horn of perpendicular to erect position; inner phyllaries 8-12 mm, apex with a thin 1-2 mm horn. Ligules light yellow; outer ligules flat, outside not striped or faintly striped purplish; inner ligules with yellow teeth at apex. Stigmas pure yellow. Anthers polliniferous; pollen grains regular in size. Achene light grayish straw-colored brown, 2.8-3.8 × 0.7-0.9 mm; body ± densely spinulose above, subgradually narrowing into a subcylindric (0.5-)0.7-1 mm cone, spinules usually irregularly bent upward and not squamulose; beak 3-4.5 mm. Pappus ± white, 3.5-4.5 mm. Fl. late spring and early summer. Sexual. 2n = 16.

Medium-moist subsaline pastures with Achnatherum splendens, path margins, riverbanks; 1600-2000 m. W Xinjiang [Kazakhstan].