Scorzonera pusilla, Pallas

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 321

20. S. pusilla Pallas , Reise 2: 744 (1773).

Perennial 5-40 cm, subglabrous to more or less arachnoid-tomentose especially on leaves and at base of involucre; rootstock vertical, slender, with a deeply buried ovoid tuber, somewhat fibrous at apex. Stems usually several, slender, rigid, sinuous, usually branched in upper half, leafy throughout. Leaves 5-15 x 0-1 -0-2 cm, linear, entire, the basal with dilated whitish sheaths. Involucre 10-25 mm, up to 40 mm in fruit. Ligules c. 1| times as long as involucre, yellow, purplish outside. Achenes 7-12 mm, cylindrical, with smooth ribs, glabrous. Pappus-hairs 2-2| times as long as achene, plumose, dirty white. Saline soils and stony or sandy steppes. S.E. Russia (near Astrakhan). Rs (E). (Temperate Asia.)