Inula hookeri - East-Himalayan Inula

East-Himalayan Inula is a perennial herb, 3-5 ft tall, with stems loosely woolly at first. Flower-heads are 6-10 cm across, solitary on top of stem or on branchlets arising near the top. Ray florets are 20-30, yellow, threadlike, 1.8-4 cm x about 1 mm. Disk florets are 40-100, yellow, 5-6.5 mm, 5-lobed. Involucre is hemispheric, 1.8-4 cm in diameter; phyllaries persistent and reflexed in fruiting, in 3 or 4 series. It may be confused with the West-Himalayan species Common Himalayan Inula. Leaves are elliptic-lanceshaped, 7-17 x 2.5-4 cm, velvet-hairy and shortly glandular on surfaces but more sparsely so above, base narrowed to leaf-stalk about 5 mm, margin minutely finely toothed, tip tapering. Seedpods are ellipsoid, about 1.5 mm, hairless, with 12 sulci. Pappus white, nearly equal to disk flowers. East-Himalayan Inula is found in C. Nepal to SW China and Myanmar, at altitudes of 2400-3600 m. Flowering: July-October.