Eritrichium canum (Benth.) Kitamura

Perennial. Stems erect-decumbent, 25-40 cm tall, appressed hairy. Leaves both surfaces with sparse to densely appressed hairs; basal leaves petiolate; cauline and upper leaves sessile, petiolate, smaller, obtuse to acute. Inflorescence simple or branched. Bracts linear. Pedicel in fruit ± erect, pubescent. Calyx lobes c. 1 mm long, ovate, upto twice in size in fruit, pubescent. Corolla blue with yellow, lobes suborbicular, apex of throat appendages minutely pubescent or not. Nutlets 1.5-2.5 x c. 1.5 mm, surface flat to slightly concave or convex, pubescent. Margin of appendages usually irregular, 0.2-1 mm. long, united at base or not, apex glochidiate.

Herbs perennial, 15-40 cm tall. Stems erect or decumbent, frequently woody at base, not branched or short branched above, densely appressed white sericeous. Petiole of basal leaves to 5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade narrowly lanceolate, to 8 cm × 6 mm, densely white sericeous, base broadly cuneate, apex acute to acuminate; stem leaves 1 to several below inflorescences, sessile, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, reduced upward. Inflorescences 2 or 3, forked, many flowered, corymbose at anthesis, becoming racemelike, to 15 cm after anthesis; bracts linear. Pedicel erect, 1-1.5 cm in fruit, short pubescent. Calyx lobes ovate, 1-2 mm, appressed pubescent, apex obtuse. Corolla light blue, campanulate-rotate; tube shorter; throat yellow or orange; appendages trapeziform or low trapeziform; lobes suborbicular, ca. 3 mm wide. Nutlets subturbinate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm excluding marginal glochids; marginal glochids ca. 1 mm, confluent at base adaxially, glabrous or short pubescent or tuberculate; abaxially flat or slightly convex, sparsely pubescent; attachment scar at base adaxially. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 24.

Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal), Tibet.

Xinjiang (Yecheng Xian), Xizang [Afghanistan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].

3800-4600 m

Gravelly slopes, sandy river banks and marshes; 2700-5600 m.

Echinospermum canum Bentham in Royle, Ill. Bot. Himal. Mts. 1: 306. 1836; Eritrichium strictum Decaisne; E. strictum var. thomsonii C. B. Clarke.