乌恰假苦菜 wu qia jia ku cai

Crepis karelinii Popov & Schischkin ex Czerepanov, Fl. URSS 29: 757. 1964; ?Askellia ladyginii Tzvelev; Youngia karelinii (Popov & Schischkin ex Czerepanov) Kamelin; Y. pygmaea (Ledebour) Ledebour var. caulescens Ruprecht; Y. pygmaea var. dentata Ledebour.

Herbs 4-10 cm tall, perennial, glabrous, glaucescent. Roots and subterranean shoots often branched and slender. Stem delicate, erect, branched from base, leafy. Basal and lower stem leaves petiolate; petiole equaling or shorter to rarely longer than leaf blade; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-oblanceolate, or spatulate, 0.5-4 × 0.3-1.5 cm, undivided to pinnatipartite, base gradually attenuate into petiole, margin subentire to sinuate-dentate, apex acute to obtuse; lateral lobes (if present) toothlike. Middle stem leaves sessile or subsessile, oblanceolate, otherwise similar to lower stem leaves. Upper stem leaves linear to subulate, smaller. Synflorescence corymbiform, with few capitula. Capitula with 10-12 florets; peduncle filiform, shorter than to ± as long as involucre. Involucre narrowly cylindric, 8-11[-13] × 3-4 mm. Phyllaries green, abaxially glabrous; outer phyllaries ovate to ovate-lanceolate, longest 3-4 mm, apex acute; inner phyllaries 8, margin scarious, apex acute to obtuse. Florets yellow. Corolla 1.1-1.4 cm. Anther tube 3-4 mm. Achene pale yellowish, fusiform, 4.5-7 mm, apically more attenuate. Pappus 5-8 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug.

Gravelly or gravelly-sandy areas particularly on floodplains; 2600-4600 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang, ?Xizang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, SC Russia].

Askellia ladyginii was recently described from a few collections from Xizang and distinguished from A. lactea by partly pinnately lobed leaves. Unlike A. lactea its florets are described as yellow. It has not been possible yet to study the material, but from the description it matches A. karelinii and appears hardly worth recognition as a separate species, though A. karelinii has otherwise so far not been reported from Xizang.