Saussurea candolleana - Winged-Stem Saw-Wort

Winged-Stem Saw-Wort is a perennial herb 50-100 cm tall. Flower-heads are 10-20, borne in a clustered corymb-like cluster. Involucre is narrowly bell-shaped, 5-8 mm in diameter. Phyllaries in 5 or 6 rows, yellowish green but dark purple apically; outer phyllaries ovate, 3-6 x 1-2.5 mm, tip tapering; middle phyllaries narrowly ovate-elliptic, 5-8 x 1.5-2 mm; inner phyllaries narrowly elliptic to linear, 8-10 x 1-1.5 mm. Receptacle bristles are light brown, 5-8 mm. Florets are 1-1.2 cm, tube 5-6 mm, limb 5-6 mm, lobes 3.5-4 mm. Stem is solitary, erect, apically branched, narrowly winged. Lower stem leaves stalkless, ovate-elliptic, obovate, or narrowly elliptic-oblong, 12-18 x 4-6 cm, below pale green, gland-dotted, and sparsely arachnoid, above dark green, rough, and sparsely velvet-hairy to nearly hairless, base narrowed, semi-stem-clasping, and decurrent, margin finely toothed, tip tapering. Middle and upper stem leaves 6-16 × 0.8-4 cm, gradually smaller upward on stem. 2n = 26. Tall forb communities on scree slopes, Winged-Stem Saw-Wort is found in the Himalaya, from Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhutan, NE India, at altitudes of 2800-3900 m. Flowering: August-September.