Heteracia epapposa (Regel & Schmalhausen) Popov; H. szovitsii var. epapposa Regel & Schmalhausen.

Herbs 5-30(-40) cm tall, annual. Taproot slender. Stem erect to ascending, sparsely furcately branched from base, glabrous. Basal leaves narrowly elliptic, obovate, or narrowly spatulate, 3-8 × 0.5-1.5 cm, undivided or shallowly pinnatifid to pinnatisect, glabrous, base attenuate, margin entire or sinuate-dentate, apex rounded to acute; lateral lobes (if present) triangular to narrowly elliptic, unequal. Stem leaves narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 3-7 × 0.5-1.5 cm, base sagittately clasping, otherwise similar to basal leaves. Capitula solitary or few, terminal or in axils of branches, sessile or on a distally somewhat thickened peduncle to usually ca. 4 cm at fruiting, with 20-50 florets. Involucre stout cylindric and 4-6 × 4-5 mm at anthesis, flat hemispheric and 5-10 mm in diam. in fruit. Outer phyllaries 2-5, triangular, 1-2 mm, subequal; inner phyllaries lanceolate, ca. 8, subequal. Achene with body 3-4 mm, of 2 kinds; outer achenes grayish brown, broadly obconical, compressed, with 5 ± rugose ribs, lateral ribs strongly winglike and enlarged, with a stout to slender 0.8-1.8 mm beak; inner achenes slenderly obconical, with 5 unequal, apically acute verruciform or scaly ribs, with a filiform beak to 8-10 mm strongly exceeding involucre. Pappus absent in outer achenes, mostly present or more rarely absent in inner achenes, white, 3-5 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun. 2n = 8.

Deserts or semideserts; 800-1000 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (E European part), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].