香短星菊 xiang duan xing ju

Basionym: Erigeron anomalus Candolle, Prodr. 5: 293. 1836 ["anomalum"]; Aster menthodorus (Bentham) Govaerts; Brachyactis anomala (Candolle) Kitamura; B. indica C. B. Clarke; B. menthodora Bentham.

Herbs, perennial, 60-95 cm tall, with sweet menthol odor. Stems erect, rigid, tinged pinkish violet, shortly branched, long-stipitate glandular. Leaves crowded, surfaces densely stipitate glandular, veins sparsely villous; basal and lower cauline long petiolate, basal fallen at anthesis, obovate or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-5 × 0.5-1.5 cm, margin serrate, apex acute or arcuate; upper sessile, gradually reduced, base subclasping, decurrent, ± rounded. Capitula radiate, solitary or 3 or 4 crowded at ends of stems or branches, 1-1.5 cm in diam.; peduncles 5-10 mm. Involucre hemispheric-campanulate; phyllaries 2- or 3-seriate, membranous, outer often 1 or 2, leaflike, green along midvein, inner linear or linear-lanceolate, 6-7 mm, sparsely villous, sparsely stipitate glandular, margin narrowly scarious, apex acute or acuminate, pinkish violet, equaling or longer than disk florets. Florets fertile. Ray florets numerous, ± 2-seriate, 5-6 mm, lamina bluish, longer than style, narrow, apex 3-toothed; disk florets ca. 5 mm, tube and limb base often hairy, limb funnelform, lobes lanceolate, glabrous. Achenes brown, oblanceolate, compressed, 3-3.5 mm, sparsely strigose. Pappus pinkish to brownish, 2-seriate, outer bristles short, inner unequal, longer than achene, barbellate. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Alpine thicket margins, grasslands on slopes; 3300-4000 m. S Xizang (Nyalam to Yadong) [Bhutan, India, Nepal].