Flowering and fruiting from May to September.
Cremanthodium campanulatum var. campanulatum is close relative of Cremanthodium campanulatum var. brachytricum, but differs from the latter in involucre outside blackish purple pilose or glabrous (vs. bracts outside shortly black pilose), pappus white (vs. brown), ca. as long as corolla (vs. much shorter than tubular corolla).
Cremanthodium campanulatum is occurring in SW to W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan of China, NE Myanmar.
Stems solitary, rarely 2, erect, purplish red, 10-30 cm, tall, 2-3 cm in diameter, proximally glabrous, distally purple pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 6-12 cm long, purple pilose, base sheathed; leaf blade reniform, 0.7-2.5 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, glabrous, sometimes abaxially purple, pilose, margin purple pilose, shallowly crenate or lobed; lobes 7-12, with white prominent palmate veins on both surfaces. Middle stem leaves shortly petiolate, base sheathed; leaf blade smaller, reniform. Distal stem leaves ovate or lanceolate, margin sharply dentate, without sheaths. Capitulum solitary, nodding. Involucre campanulate, 1.5-2.8 cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm wide, outside blackish purple pilose or glabrous, but base hairy; involucral bracts 10-14, in 2 rows, purplish red to purplish red, rarely yellowish white, petaloid, obovate-oblong or broadly elliptic, 0.7-2 cm, thin, submembranous, conspicuously veined, margin subentire, ciliate, outside sometimes pilose, apex rounded or rarely narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. Florets numerous, all tubular, purplish red, 6-8 mm; tube ca. 2 mm; styles extending from corolla, slender; branches of style blackish purple papillate. Pappus white or brown, ca. as long as or shorter than tubular corolla. Achenes brown, cuneate, 3-5 mm, slightly compressed, apex truncate, with denticulate corona. Leaves glabrous. Involucral bracts purplish red, outside glabrous. Pappus white, ca. as long as tubular corolla.
Growing in forest understories, forest margins, grassy slopes, scrub, alpine meadows, gravel zones on high mountains; 3200-4800 m.
