Scorzonera fengtienensis Nakai; S. hotanica C. H. An; S. mongolica var. putjatae C. Winkler.

Herbs 5-35 cm tall, perennial, rosulate. Rootstock cylindric. Caudex with brown to pale yellow scarious leaf sheath residues. Stems few to some, grayish green, ascending to more rarely erect, branched apically, glabrous. Rosette leaves narrowly elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, 2-13[-20] × 0.4-1.1[-4] cm, usually ± fleshy, glabrous, somewhat glaucous, base attenuate to long attenuate with an adaxially sometimes lanate sheath, apex acute to acuminate. Stem leaves often partly opposite, similar to rosette leaves but shorter. Synflorescence sparsely corymbiform, with few capitula or more rarely capitulum solitary. Involucre narrowly cylindric, usually 1.7-2.2 × 0.4-0.5 cm at anthesis, to 3 × 0.6-0.7 cm in fruit. Phyllaries abaxially arachnoid hairy and glabrescent or glabrous; outermost phyllaries ovate, 3-5 × 2-5 mm, apex acute. Florets yellow, rarely white, slightly longer than involucre. Achene pale yellow, cylindric, 5-7 cm, with smooth ribs, apex somewhat pilose, otherwise ± glabrous. Pappus white, 2-2.8 cm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Aug.

Saline meadows, saline sands, alkaline lands, dry lake basins, floodplains, lake margins, grassy beaches; near sea level to 3200 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia].