天全紫菀 tian quan zi wan

Herbs, perennial, 7-18 cm tall; rhizomes robust, without stolons. Stems ascending, simple, slender, sparsely villous, often glabrescent below. Leaves crowded below and scattered above, glabrate, rather thick, margin villous-ciliate, midvein abaxially prominent, lateral veins 2- or 3-paired and obliquely ascending; basal leaves winged petiolate; blade spatulate, 2-7 × 0.5-1.5 cm, base attenuate, margin 2-5-crenate-serrate, apex obtuse or rounded; lower cauline leaves present at anthesis, sessile or shortly winged petiolate, spatulate to oblanceolate, 1-1.5 × ca. 0.3 cm, apically 3-serrate or entire; upper leaves small, oblong or linear, margin entire. Capitula terminal, solitary, 2-2.7 cm. Involucres hemispheric-campanulate, ca. 7 × 6-10 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, subequal, or outer phyllaries somewhat shorter, linear-lanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 6-7.2 × ca. 1 mm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely villous, membranous, margin villous-ciliate, margin of inner phyllaries ± broadly scarious, erose-fimbriate, apex acute to acuminate, ± leaflike, purplish. Ray florets 13-17, white, tube ca. 1.5 mm, hairy, lamina 10-11 × ca. 2 mm; disk florets ca. 4.5 mm, tube 1-1.2 mm, hairy, limb funnelform, glabrous, lobes lanceolate, ca. 0.8 mm. Achenes (immature) narrowly oblong, ± compressed, ca. 2.5 mm, densely strigose, 2-ribbed. Pappus (immature) 3-seriate, reddish, bristles barbellate throughout; outer bristles short; inner bristles 3.5-4.5 mm. Fl. May-Jul.

● Mountain forest margins and thickets; ca. 3300 m. C and NC Sichuan (Lixian, Tianquan).

Aster tientschwanensis is similar to A. salwinensis but differs from it by its thick, glabrate leaves, densely strigose achenes, and reddish pappus.