Artemisia indica var. elegantissima (Pamp.) Y. R. Ling & C. J. Humphries

Perennial (?), glabrous, 50-100 cm tall herb with striate-sulcate, ± spreading shoots. Basal leaves long petiolate, bipinnatisect, rachis winged, upper side dark green with sparse forked appressed hairs, lower side greyish-green, moderately to densely appressed hairy; middle and upper stem leaves with 2-4 cm long, narrowly winged petiole, lamina 6-12 x 3-8 cm, primary segments remote, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 3-5 (-6) x 1.5-3 cm, incised-dentate, acuminate, mucronulate. Capitula heterogamous, sessile or inconspicuously peduncled, oblong-campanulate,3-4 x c. 2 mm, ± erect, remote in broad pyramidate, almost leafless panicle with obliquely spreading, up to 18 cm long branches. Involucre 3-4-seriate, phyllaries glabrous, outermost ovate, 1.75-2 x 1.25-1.5 mm, subobtuse, inner ones oblong-narrowly obovate. 2.5-3 x 1.25-1.5 mm, obtuse, hyaline-scarious on margins. Receptacle conical, glabrous. Florets 15-20, yellowish, all fertile; marginal florets female, 7-10 with c. 1.5 mm long, 2-toothed tubular, ± glandular corolla and long-exserted flat style branches; disc-florets 8-10, bisexual, clavate-tubular, c. 2 mm long, basally ± glandulose 5-toothed corolla. Cypselas oblong-oblanceolate, c. 1.25 mm long, brown.

Distribution: Pakistan (Chitral), Kashmir and India.

Fl. Per.: July-August.

In gravelly and pebbly hillslopes in valleys above 1500 m.