Heterochaeta asteroides Candolle, Prodr. 5: 282. 1836; Aster hedinii Ostenfeld; A. heterochaeta Bentham ex C. B. Clarke, nom. illeg. superfl.; A. likiangensis Franchet subsp. hedinii (Ostenfeld) Onno; Erigeron heterochaeta Botschantzev.

Herbs, perennial, 2-15(-30) cm tall; rhizomes short; roots tuberoid, near ground surface. Stems erect, solitary, scapiform, purplish or green below, base without marcescent leaf remains, basally densely to distally sparsely villous, densely minutely glandular pubescent. Leaves basal and cauline; cauline leaves abruptly reduced, villous, sparsely minutely stipitate glandular, margin entire (basal leaves rarely serrulate), ciliate, 3-5-veined; basal leaves present at anthesis, shortly petiolate, ovate to oblong, 0.5-2 × 0.4-1.3 cm, base rounded to ± attenuate, apex obtuse to acute; middle cauline leaves sessile, oblong to lanceolate, apex obtuse to acuminate; upper leaves subsessile, linear to linear-lanceolate. Capitula terminal, solitary. Involucres hemispheric, 6-9 mm in diam.; phyllaries 2- or 3-seriate, subequal, oblanceolate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 5.5-7 × 1-1.5 mm, villous, densely minutely purplish stipitate glandular, more so distally, membranous, margin scarious, densely purplish villous-ciliate, multiveined, apex acuminate, leaflike, tip recurved, purplish. Ray florets 35-60, bluish purple to deep mauve, lamina linear-lanceolate, 10-15 × 1-2 mm; disk florets orange-yellow, 3-3.5 mm, limb funnelform, ca. 2.5 mm, base minutely purple stipitate glandular, lobes erect, triangular, 0.6-0.8 mm, abaxially sparsely hairy, minutely purple stipitate glandular. Achenes narrowly obovoid, ca. 2 mm, strigillose, eglandular, 3- or 4-ribbed. Pappus 2-seriate, straw-colored; outermost series of few broad scales 0.7-1 mm; inner series of few clavate, barbellate bristles ca. 3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Aster asteroides somewhat resembles A. flaccidus but is easily distinguished from it by its tuberous roots and purplish glandular disk floret lobes.

Alpine thickets, damp grasslands, marshy areas; 3200-4600 m. Gansu, E Qinghai, W Sichuan, C and S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Kashmir, Nepal].