font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Doronicum orientale 'Little Leo'

(Little Leo Leopard's Bane)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Common Names

[ Back to top ]

Common Names in English:

Little Leo Leopard's Bane

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Compositae

The largest family of flowering plants , the Compositae (Asteraceae), comprising about 1,100 genera and more than 20,000 species and characterized by many small flowers arranged in a head looking like a single flower and subtended by an involucre of bracts. A head may consist of both ray flowers and disk flowers, as in the sunflower, of disk flowers only, as in the burdock, or of ray flowers only, as in the dandelion.

Tribe Senecioneae

The Senecioneae are a tribe of closely related genera that can be recognized most readily by the nature of the pappus and the involucral bracts or phyllaries. The phyllaries are basically in one well developed, often partially or wholly connate series of equal length that closely envelope the head . Frequently there are a few, very much smaller and mostly randomly distributed, often necrotic-tipped bracts near the base of the main series. The pappus is of fine, soft, often pure white capillary hairs . Heads may be either discoid or radiate . -- Gerald Carr.

Genus Doronicum

Perennials , 10-60(-90) [-150+] cm (rhizomes sericeous at nodes [glabrous or glabrate ]). Stems usually 1, erect . Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate (petiole bases sometimes dilated , clasping ) or sessile; blades palmati-pinnately or pinnately nerved, elliptic , lanceolate, ovate-orbiculate, or ovate [oblong , pandurate , spatulate ], margins entire or crenate to denticulate , faces glabrous or arachnose to pilose , sometimes glandular-pubescent (especially along veins). Heads radiate , borne singly or in corymbiform arrays (peduncles often glandular-pubescent). Calyculi 0. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric or broader, 22-40 mm. Phyllaries persistent , 21-30+ in 2-3+ series, erect to spreading , distinct or nearly so, lanceolate to lance-linear or subulate , equal to subequal , margins seldom scarious (often ciliate ). Receptacles convex to hemispheric, smooth or foveolate (pilose), epaleate. Ray florets [13-]21-40+ (more in horticultural doubles ), pistillate , fertile ; corollas yellow. Disc florets [50-]100-250+, bisexual , fertile; corollas yellow, tubes shorter than to equaling funnelform throats , lobes 5, erect or recurved, lance-deltate to lance-linear (lengths to 5 times widths ) ; style branches: stigmatic areas continuous, apices rounded to truncate . Cypselae flattened, broadly obovate , 5- or 10-ribbed, glabrous or hairy ; pappi persistent, usually of 40-60, white or stramineous , barbellulate bristles (in 1-2 series), sometimes 0 in ray florets (e.g. , D. pardalianches). x = 30.

Species 35: introduced ; Eurasia .[1]

Physical Description

Flowers: Brilliant flowers mid- to late spring . • Bloom Period: April, May. • Flower Color: gold, yellow-orange

Foliage: Summer foliage: Clumps of bright green leaves.

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 6-10" tall.

Landscaping

Care: Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system . For a neat appearance , remove old foliage before new leaves emerge . Divide clumps every 2 to 3 years in early spring .

Biology

[ Back to top ]

Growth

Culture: Space 9-12" apart.

Soil: Prefers excellent, organic , sandy soil.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Thrives in either full sun or shade. Prefers a cool spot in partial shade.

Moisture: Water Requirements: Keep surface of soil moist, but not soggy.

Temperature: Heat Zones: High: 9 (>120 to 150 days) Low:1 (< 1 days) (map) • Cold Hardiness: 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b. (map)

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Notes

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Doronicum

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 8 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

D. austriacum (Austrian Leopards Bane) · D. caucasicum 'Finesse' (Finesse Leopard's Bane) · D. orientale (Leopards Bane) · D. orientale var. Magnificum (Leopard's Bane) · D. orientale 'Little Leo' (Little Leo Leopard's Bane) · D. orientale 'Miss Mason' (Leopards Bane) · D. pardalianches (Giant Leopards Bane) · D. plantagineum (Leopards Bane)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Amy Trauth Nare "Doronicum". in Flora of North America Vol. 20 Page 540, 542, 611. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/21/2012