9. Chondrilla pauciflora Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 4: 148. 1833.
少花粉苞菊 shao hua fen bao ju
Chondrilla kossinskyi Iljin; C. saisanensis Iljin; C. squamata Iljin; C. thoracifera Iljin.
Herbs 40-110 cm tall, perennial, broomlike, basally sometimes woody. Stem ± intricately basally erect-spreadingly and higher up divaricately branched; branches slender, glabrous or sometimes apically indistinctly arachnoid hairy, ± leafy. Lower stem leaves lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 × 0.2-0.6 cm, early deciduous, glabrous, margin entire. Middle and upper stem leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear, 1-3 cm × 0.3-1.5 mm, early deciduous, glabrous, margin entire. Capitula with 5(-7) florets. Involucre 1.1-1.5 cm, sparsely arachnoid hairy especially basally. Phyllaries green to dark green; outer phyllaries broadly triangular-ovate, 1-2 mm; inner phyllaries 5(-7). Achene 5-7.5 mm; body apically with a corona of 5 erect 3-lobed to irregularly lobed scales of (0.1-)0.2-0.3 mm with lobes of ± equal length, below with 1 or 2 series of tubercles and/or scales; beak stout, 0.5-1.5(-2) mm, without articulation. Pappus 7-9 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Sep. 2n = 15.
Gravel steppes; 500-1500 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia (E European part), Uzbekistan].
C. H. An (Fl. Xinjiang. 5: 433. 1999) also includes for Xinjiang Chondrilla macrocarpa Leonova, a species otherwise only known from Kyzyl Kum and distinguished from C. ambigua by its achene with a body of up to 1.1 cm. The corresponding material has not been seen by the authors, but from the distribution this report appears very questionable (see also Tzvelev, Rast. Tsentral. Azii 14b: 86. 2008); also, from the description given by C. H. An it seems that a confusion probably exists with material of C. pauciflora, perhaps with rather indistinctly developed corona.