Saussurea schlagintweitii - Glandular Saw-Wort

Glandular Saw-Wort is a perennial herb 10-20 cm tall, sometimes clustered. It is named for Adolf von Schlagintweit (1829-1857), a German botanist and explorer of Central Asia. Flower-heads are large, borne singly at branch-ends on stem, usually surrounded by uppermost linear leaves. Florets are purplish red, 1.5-1.7 cm, tube 7-8 mm, limb 8-9 mm, lobes 4-5 mm. Involucres are broadly bell-shaped, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter. Phyllaries are in 3 or 4 rows, narrowly triangular-ovate to subulate, densely hairy, tip tapering; outer phyllaries green, 12-20 x 2-3 mm; middle and inner phyllaries purple, 1.8-2 x 0.1-0.2 cm. Caudex is branched, with several sterile leaf rosettes and flowering stems. Stem solitary, erect, simple, covered at base with remains of leaf-stalks. Rosette and basal stem leaves are stalked; leaf-stalk above densely white woolly or silky at base. Leaves are narrowly elliptic to linear, 2-10 x 0.7-1.2 cm, both surfaces green and densely glandular hairy, margin wavy-toothed. Middle and upper stem leaves are similar to lower ones. Seed-pods are cylindric or obconic, 4-5 mm, 4-angled, at tip with glands. Glandular Saw-Wort is found on scree slopes, grasslands, rock crevices, at altitudes of 4700-5500 m, in SW Xinjiang to Western Himalaya. Flowering: July-September.