Aster argyi H. Léveillé; A. candelabrum Vaniot.

Herbs, perennial, 14-100 cm tall, sometimes caespitose, rhizomatous, sometimes with next year’s rosette. Stems erect, simple or branched upward, purplish striate, ± densely villous, ± densely minutely long-stipitate glandular. Leaves cauline, gradually reduced upward, abaxially villous to shortly villous (upper leaves), adaxially villous to strigose (upper leaves), veins villous, densely minutely long-stipitate glandular, margin coarsely serrate to serrulate or entire (upper leaves), villous- to strigose-ciliate, midvein prominent abaxially, sometimes somewhat 3-veined, apex obtuse to acute, mucronulate; lowest leaves withered by anthesis, (long) winged petiolate, ovate, base attenuate; lower to upper leaves sessile, ovate or pandurate to lanceolate-pandurate, 1.5-7(-9) × 0.4-1.8(-2.5) cm, base auriculate, clasping; synflorescence leaves oblong-ovate, 1-2.5 × 0.2-0.8 cm. Capitula 3-40, in terminal, laxly corymbiform synflorescences, rarely solitary; peduncles 5-50 mm, villosulous, densely minutely long-stipitate glandular; bracts lanceolate, entire, upper bracts grading into phyllaries. Involucres hemispheric to campanulate, ca. 5 mm; phyllaries 3-seriate, unequal, midvein thin; outer phyllaries linear-lanceolate, 3-3.5 × 0.5-0.7 mm, abaxially glabrous, densely minutely long-stipitate glandular, leaflike, margin not to ± narrowly scarious, ciliate, apex sometimes spreading, acute, sometimes mucronate, sometimes purplish, ciliate, middle and inner phyllaries green distally, base hardened, margin erose, ciliate; middle phyllaries oblanceolate, 3.8-4 × 1-1.3 mm, abaxially densely minutely long-stipitate glandular, margin broadly scarious, ciliate, apex acuminate; inner phyllaries linear-oblong, 4-4.5 × 0.8-1.1 mm, distally densely minutely long-stipitate glandular, scarious. Ray florets 15-25, purple to blue, or white tinged purplish, tube sparsely strigillose, lamina 5-7 × 1.5-2 mm, eglandular; disk florets yellow, 4.5-5 mm, tube and limb base sparsely strigillose, minutely stipitate glandular, limb campanulate, 2.5-3 mm, lobes erect to spreading, narrowly triangular, 1.5-1.7 mm, glabrous, sparsely minutely stipitate glandular. Achenes obovoid, slightly compressed, ca. 1.5 mm, sparsely strigillose, minutely stipitate glandular, 2-ribbed. Pappus 3- or 4-seriate, of few, reddish, slender barbellate bristles; outermost bristles few, ca. 0.5 mm; outer bristles absent or 1, ca. 2 mm; inner bristles 2.5-3 mm, tapering; innermost bristles 4-5 mm, weakly clavate. Fl. Feb-Sep, fr. Jun-Oct.

● Thickets, grasslands on slopes, canal sides, roadsides, field margins; 100-1400 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, W Sichuan, Zhejiang.