FoI
Rough-Leaf Pig's Head
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Rough-Leaf Pig's Head
P Native Photo: Ashutosh Sharma
Common name: Rough-Leaf Pig's Head
Botanical name: Carpesium trachelifolium    Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)

Rough-Leaf Pig's Head is a perennial herb with stems 30-50 cm tall, usually sparsely velvet-hairy. Leaves are ovate, 4-15 x 2-8 cm, sparsely velvet-hairy on surfaces, with nearly stalkless glands below, base usually tapering to narrowed, margin nearly entire to coarsely sawtoothed; lower leaves broadly (rarely narrowly) stalked; upper ones stalkless or shortly stalked. Flower-heads are borne 1-8 in racemes or spikes at branch ends, nearly erect to drooping, 2-10 mm in diameter, surrounded by leaflike bracts 4.5-37 x 2-9 mm. Involucral bracts are in 4- or 5-series; phyllaries mostly oblong, up to 3.5-5.2 mm, scarious, blunt, outer ones sometimes shorter or herbaceous above or ovate and rounded to tapering at tip. Disk florets are about 2 mm, tube hairless or hairy. Achenes are about 3 mm, narrowed above to glandular tip. Rough-Leaf Pig's Head is found in valleys and forests in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 2000-3500 m, from NE Pakistan to China, Myanmar, Taiwan. Flowering: July-August.

Identification credit: Ashutosh Sharma Photographed in Kullu Distt., Himachal Pradesh.

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