Ferula karelinii Bunge

Plants 40–100 cm. Stem slender, glabrous, lower branches alternate, upper branches verticillate. Leaf blade obtriangular or broadly ovate, 8–40 × 6–30 cm; ultimate leaf segments 2–20 × 0.5–1 mm, entire or serrate apically. Umbels 3–12 cm across; rays 5–29, subequal, glabrous, white-striate; bracteoles 5–6, pubescent, margins scarious; umbellules very small, 4–7 mm across, remote. Calyx teeth broadly triangular, white membranous in fruit. Fruit 10–15 × 5–8 mm;. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.

Plants c. 40 cm tall. Root thick, tuberous. Stem base fibrous. Leaves bipinnate; leaf segments linear, up to 8 cm long, 1 mm wide; upper segments gradually shorter; margin white, thick; apex pungent, recurved. Rays 10-15, 2-4 cm long. Involucel of 5-8 oval to ovate white, pubescent. bractlets. Petals ovate, outer surface pubescent. Ovary densely pubescent. Stylopodium conical, hairy at the base; styles divaricate to reflexed, 1 mm long. Fruit elliptic to ob¬long, pubescent, 8-10 mm long; vittae numerous, minute; commissure 6-vittate.

N Xinjiang (Altay Shan, Huocheng, Tian Shan) [Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran)].

Distribution: USSR, Iran, W. Pakistan.

Sandy places in deserts; 500–700 m.