Eritrichium villosum (Ledeb.) Bunge

Herbs perennial, 5-18 cm tall. Stems single or several and cespitose, pilose. Basal leaves forming a rosette, sessile, oblong to broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate. Inflorescences terminal, several to many flowered, becoming racemelike in fruit, 3-4 cm; bracts leaflike. Pedicel 1.5-3 mm, pilose. Calyx lobes erect or spreading, lanceolate to linear, ca. as long as pedicel, pilose outside, glabrous inside or nearly so. Corolla blue, light purple, rarely yellow, campanulate-rotate; tube 1.2-2 mm; appendages oblong, somewhat exserted from throat, with a papillate emergence below; lobes oblong, 1.8-2.5 mm. Stamens inserted on middle of corolla tube. Gynobase ca. 0.5 mm. Nutlets subturbinate, ca. 2 × 1.2-1.6 mm; abaxially slightly convex, somewhat pubescent, with a conspicuous center line rib; marginal bristles ca. 0.2-0.5 mm, pubescent and dentate, confluent into a narrow wing, not barbed; attachment scar at base, suborbicular. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 24.

Heilongjiang, N Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, N India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia; N Europe].

Hillside meadows; 2500-3000 m.

Myosotis villosa Ledebour, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint Petersbourg Hist. Acad. 5: 516. 1815; Echinospermum sericeum Bentham; Eritrichium basifixum C. B. Clarke; E. nanum (Villars) Schrader subsp. villosum (Ledebour) Brand; E. nanum subsp. villosum (Ledebour) Brand var. euvillosum Brand; E. sericeum (Bentham) A. de Candolle.