Antennaria leontopodina Candolle; Leontopodium alpinum Cassini var. debile Beauverd; L. alpinum var. hedinianum Beauverd; L. fischerianum Beauverd; L. leontopodinum (Candolle) Handel-Mazzetti; L. melanolepis Y. Ling.

Herbs, perennial. Rhizome shortly branching, densely covered with black-brown relicts of leaves, forming tufts of numerous stems and sterile leaf rosettes, sometimes elongating into stolons up to 10 cm, often branching, and herbaceous brown scaly. Stems erect and firm, 5-15 cm tall, with 4-8 remote leaves, ash-colored arachnoid lanate or tomentose in upper half, sometimes glabrescent in lower half. Leaves concolorous, ash-colored lanate on both surfaces, sometimes greenish glabrate abaxially, without a distinct vein; cauline leaves oblong, lingulate, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, 10-250 × 2-4 mm, apex obtuse or acute; radical rosette leaves oblong-spatulate or narrowly oblong, 20-40 × 2-4.5 mm, narrowed to sheath. Capitula 5-7(-12), heterogamous and unisexual-dioecious, densely aggregated, 5-7 mm in diam.; bracteal leaves distinct, oblong-elliptic or lanceolate, forming rather regular multiradiate star of 1.5-2(-2.5) cm in diam., abaxially ash-colored lanate, adaxially loosely tomentose, pallid yellow, sometimes even ash- to sulfur-colored in dried plant. Phyllaries lanceolate, 4-5 mm, abaxially yellowish lanate or greenish, with prominent brown or almost black shiny apex. Corolla 3-4 mm. Achenes glabrous or papillose. Pappus dirty white, in sterile bisexual florets 3-5 mm, in female florets 4-5 mm. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

Mountain tundra, humid or dry meadows, stony fields of slopes; 2200-5000 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].