Ixeris polycephala - Many-Flowered Ixeris

Many-Flowered Ixeris is an annual herb 10-50 cm tall, with stem solitary, erect, branched already in lower half or higher up, hairless, leafy. Flower-heads are borne in corymbs, with few to some flower-heads. Flower-heads have 20-25 florets; flower-cluster-stalk capillaceous. Florets are yellow or rarely white. Anther tube and style greenish to blackish upon drying. Involucre is cylindric and 5-6 × 2-3 mm at anthesis, broadly bell-shaped and 7-8 x 4-5 mm in fruit. Phyllaries below hairless; outer phyllaries 4-6, ovate, longest less than 1 mm, tip pointed; inner phyllaries 8, tip pointed to blunt. Basal leaves are narrowly inverted-lanceshaped to linear, 6-22 x 0.3-1.5 cm, undivided or pinnately cut, base narrowed into a well-developed leaf-stalk-like portion and semi-stem-clasping, margin entire or toothed, tip pointed; lateral lobes (if present) 2-5 pairs, on leaf blade basal 1/2-2/3. Stem leaves are lanceshaped to linear-lanceshaped, smaller, rather undivided, base strongly arrow-shaped, stem clasping, margin mostly entire, otherwise similar to basal leaves. Seedpods are brown to reddish brown, ellipsoid, about 4 mm, tip contracted into a slender 1-1.5 mm beak. Many-Flowered Ixeris is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan, Kashmir to Nepal, NE India, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Japan, at altitudes of 100-2000 m. Flowering: November-March.