Lappula karelinii (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Kamelin

Herbs biennial, densely cespitose. Taproots conical, stout, to 8 cm. Stems numerous, short branched above, 11-15 cm tall, gray-white pilose. Basal leaves numerous, forming a rosette, frequently persistent in withered state; petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade spatulate to linear, 0.5-1.5 cm × 5-7 mm, abaxially densely gray-white pilose, adaxially glabrous or pubescent, dark green, base attenuate, apex rounded and emarginate; stem leaves sessile, linear, 1-2.5 cm × 1.5-2 mm. Inflorescences terminal on branches, many flowered. Pedicel ca. 2 mm; bracts oblong, ca. 3 mm, somewhat shorter than fruit. Flowers crowded. Calyx 5-parted; lobes oblong, to 1.5 mm in fruit, much shorter than nutlets. Corolla campanulate, 1.5-2 mm; tube 1-1.5 mm; limb 1-1.5 mm wide; lobes obovate, ca. 0.5 mm. Style not surpassing nutlets; stigma capitate. Fruit light yellow, 2.5-3 mm. Nutlets heteromorphic, ovoid, glabrous, shiny; disc narrowly ovate, frequently dark greenish; marginal glochids in a single row, 2-2.5 mm on 2 nutlets and 0.3-0.5 mm, lanceolate on other nutlets. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

Xinjiang (Burqin Xian).

* Sandy river banks; ca. 400 m.

Echinospermum karelinii Fischer & C. A. Meyer, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 11: 67. 1845; Lappula xinjiangensis C. Y. Yang ex C. J. Wang.