秦岭蟹甲草 qin ling xie jia cao

Cacalia tsinlingensis Handel-Mazzetti, Oesterr. Bot. Z. 85: 221. 1936.

Plants erect or sometimes curved, 35-70 cm tall. Stem solitary, striate, brown arachnoid or glabrate. Leaves long petiolate; petiole 10-15 cm, densely brown pubescent, base expanded and amplexicaul; lower leaves withered by anthesis; blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially green, reniform or ovate-cordate, 10-15 × 12-18 cm, thinly papery, abaxially sordid arachnoid and brown pubescent, sometimes subglabrous, adaxially sparsely shortly brown pubescent, basally 5-7-veined, lateral veins few, upward furcately branched, veins raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, base deeply cordate or broadly cordate, margin shallowly undulate-lobed at base, apex rounded-obtuse; lobes broadly triangular, obtuse or subrounded-toothed, teeth mucronulate. Upper leaves shortly petiolate, smaller. Capitula many, terminal, arranged in racemes or dense panicles; rachis and peduncle shortly brown pubescent. Involucres cylindric, 4-6 mm, base with 1 or 2 lanceolate bractlets; bractlets 5-15 mm, brown arachnoid, margin entire or sparsely toothed, apex acuminate; phyllaries 5, oblong or linear-lanceolate, glabrous, margin scarious, apically obtuse. Florets 5 or 6; corolla white, 4-5 mm; tube slender; lobes lanceolate. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally shortly caudate. Style branches excurved, apically truncate, papillose. Achenes brown, cylindric, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep.

● Understories of lax forests, shaded wet places in valleys; 1400-1800 m. Gansu, Shaanxi.