Saussurea hyperiophora Handel-Mazzetti.
Herbs 2-7 cm tall, perennial, monocarpic, stemless or shortly stemmed. Taproot conic, fleshy. Caudex 0.5-1.5 cm in diam., simple, covered with remains of leaf bases; leaf bases brown, adaxially white sericeous-villous. Rosette leaves sessile, narrowly ovate-linear but base ovately widened, 2-5(-7) × 0.1-0.8(-1) cm, abaxially sericeous, adaxially sericeous-villous to densely lanate in basal part and glabrous in apical part, margin entire, apex long acuminate to caudate. Capitula 8-30, in center of leaf rosette, in a hemispheric synflorescence 2.5-4 cm in diam., sessile or shortly pedunculate. Involucre cylindric, ca. 6 mm in diam. Phyllaries in 3 or 4 rows, membranous, apically purple, apex acute; outer phyllaries narrowly obovate to oblong, 7-10 × 3-4 mm, apically villous; middle and inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 10-12 × 2-2.5 mm, glabrous. Receptacle bristles 1-3 mm. Corolla purplish red, 8-10 mm, tube 3-5 mm, limb 4-6 mm, lobes 2-3 mm. Achene gray with some dark spots or blackish brown, cylindric to obconic, 3-5 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus brown; outer bristles 2-4 mm; inner bristles 7-10 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 28*.
● Alpine scree slopes, alpine meadows; 4300-5500 m. Qinghai, W Sichuan, S Xinjiang, Xizang.
