Leibnitzia anandria

Leibnitzia anandria (L.) Turcz. (Asteraceae), sometimes treated as Gerbera anandria, is a small dimorphic perennial herb 5-30 cm tall, native to East Asia, with a wide range across Japan, the Korean peninsula, China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East and the Himalayas, where it grows in dry grasslands, sunny open slopes and pine-oak woodland margins. All leaves are basal, forming a flat rosette; they are obovate to lyrate-pinnatifid, 3-10 cm long, dark green above and white-woolly beneath, with shallowly lobed margins. The plant produces dimorphic capitula on white-woolly leafless scapes 5-25 cm tall: spring chasmogamous heads bear narrow pinkish-white ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets, while later cleistogamous summer heads remain closed and are entirely self-pollinating. Achenes are slender, beaked, and bear a pappus of stiff tawny barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal. The plant tolerates poor stony soils and is widespread but seldom abundant.