Type:— CHINA. Xizang: Lhünzê, Sanga Choling, Kala mountain, grassy slopes beside mixed forests in valley, 28°36’ N, 92°56’ E, 3800–4050 m, 9 August 2013, FLPH Tibet Expedition 13-0847 (holotype PE; isotypes PE).
Perennial herbs 11–30 cm tall, usually caespitose. Caudex stout, branched, apically densely covered with blackish brown, sometimes fibrous lacerate remains of petioles. Stems usually several, erect, simple, dark brown glandular pilose. Rosette leaves petiolate; petiole to 5 cm; leaf blade oblong to lanceolate, 7–18 × 1–2.5(–3) cm, pinnately lobed; lateral lobes 7–15 pairs, ovate, margin usually entire, or sometimes few denticulate, apex usually mucronate; abaxially greyish white and arachnoid tomentose, adaxially green and glandular scabrid, apex obtuse and usually mucronate, base attenuate. Stem leaves 2–5, shortly petiolate; leaf blade same in division as basal leaves, but smaller in size. Capitula solitary, terminal on stem. Involucre campanulate, (1–) 1.5–2.5 cm in diam. Phyllaries in 5–8 rows, sparsely arachnoid, especially outer ones; outer phyllaries narrowly triangular-subulate, 14–17 × 2–2.5 mm, apex acute, leafy, green, and reflexed; middle phyllaries subulate-linear, 13–17 × 3–3.5 mm, apex acute, herbaceous, green, and reflexed; inner phyllaries linear, 17–19 × ca. 2 mm, apex blackish, acuminate. Receptacle bristles subulate, 3–5 mm long. Corolla light blue, 1.5–1.8 cm long, tube 10–11 mm long, limb 7–8 mm long, lobes 4–5 mm long. Anther ca. 7 mm long, tails white lanate, ca. 1 mm long. Achene cylindric, ca. 3 mm long, ribbed, glabrous. Pappus pale brown; outer bristles ca. 2.5 mm long, scabrid; inner bristles 13–14 mm long, plumose.
Distribution and habitat: — Saussurea lhunzensis occurs in Lhünzê, Gyaca and Mêdog, southestern Xizang, China. It grows on alpine sandy grassy meadows or thickets beside mixed forests in valleys at altitudes of 3800–4450 m.
Phenology:—Flowering and fruiting from July to September.
Etymology: —The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, Lhünzê, a county in southern Xizang, China.
Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — CHINA. Xizang: Gyaca, Hongqi, Cuogu, 3800 m, 19 August 1972, Xizang Chinese Medic. Exped. 4334 (PE); Gyaca, Hongqi, Cuogu, alpine meadows, 4000 m, 19 August 1972, Xizang Chinese Medic. Exped. 4333 (PE); Lhünzê, Xuesha, Kala mountain, grassy slopes in valley, 28°35’ N, 92°29’ E, 4340 m, 4 August 2013, FLPH Tibet Expedition 13-0260 (PE); Kongbo, [Mêdog], Pero La (at southern Duoxiong La), 29°30’ N, 95°00’ E, 4115 m, 10 July 1938, F. Ludlow et al. 5203 (BM, E).
Discussion:— Saussurea lhunzensis belongs to S. subgen. Saussurea sect. Strictae because of its pinnately lobed leaves and solitary capitula. Saussurea lhunzensis is similar to S. pachyneura Franchet (1894: 354) in its habit, leaf shape, capitula number and size but differs in its stem covered by glandular pilose hairs, leaf adaxially glandular scabrid, phyllary herbaceous, phyllary apex acute and reflexed, whereas S. pachyneura is different in its stem densely arachnoid, leaf adaxially glabrous, phyllary coriaceous, phyllary apex acuminate and appressed. Saussurea lhunzensis occurs in southerneastern Xizang, whereas S. pachyneura occurs in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Xizang.A comparison of S. lhunzensis and S. pachyneura is given in Table 3.