Melanoseris brunoniana - Himalayan Blue Sow-Thistle

Himalayan Blue Sow-Thistle is an erect perennial plant, 1-6 ft tall, with variously dissected leaves, topped with a lax branched cluster of slender blue, purple or less commonly white flower-heads each with 3-5 pale purple-blue florets. Flower-heads are 1.3-2 cm long by 2-3 mm broad. Involucral bracts are hairless, the outer broader and less than one third as long as the inner oblong blunt bracts. Branches are generally hairy. Leaves are very variable; leaf-stalks long or short, winged or not, with enlarged or winged base; blade 10-20 cm, triangular heart-shaped, or with cut-off base, toothed or pinnately lobed, the lobes further lobed or toothed. Stem is 1-6 ft tall, simple or branched above, often glandular-hairy above. Himalayan Blue Sow-Thistle is common in forests, shrubberies, meadows, from Afghanistan to C. Nepal, at altitudes of 1800-3600 m. Flowering July-October.