Saussurea amara

• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

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.

Genus Saussurea

Perennials , 5-120+ cm; herbage tomentose or glabrescent , not spiny . Stems erect or ascending , simple or branched. Leaves basal or cauline (sometimes cauline only), sessile or petiolate ; blade margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed , faces glabrous to densely tomentose, glandular or eglandular . Heads discoid , borne singly or in corymbiform arrays. Involucres ovoid to campanulate or ± turbinate . Phyllaries many in 3-5(-10+) series, subequal to strongly unequal, appressed or not, ovate to lanceolate, margins entire, toothed , or lobed, apices obtuse or acute, appendaged or not, not spine-tipped. Receptacles flat or convex , epaleate, smooth , usually subulate-scaly, sometimes bristly or naked. Florets 10-20; corollas white to blue or purple, tubes slender, abruptly expanded to throats , lobes linear ; anther bases short-tailed, apical appendages linear, acute; style branches: fused portions with minutely hairy subterminal nodes, distinct portions oblong to linear, short-papillate. Cypselae oblong, ± angled , cylindric or 4-5-angled, ribs (when present) smooth or roughened, apices entire, glabrous or minutely glandular, attachment scars basal; pappi usually of 2 series, outer of readily falling, short bristles , inner persistent or falling as unit , of basally connate , usually longer , plumose bristles. x = 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19?.

Species 300-400: North America, Eurasia , 1 in Australia.

Saussurea is a notoriously difficult, largely Asiatic genus with species boundaries often indistinct.[1]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Saussurea amara< /i> (L.) Dc. • Serratula Amara • Serratula amara L. • Theodorea Amara

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: IPNI, Flora of China Checklist , Tropicos, Euro+Med, Vietnam Flora. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:C659FC26-3061-4A8E-A12B-0398CB9D148E

Last scrutiny: 20-Aug-09

Similar Species

Members of the genus Saussurea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 13 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. alpina (Alpine Sawwort) · S. amara (Saussurea) · S. americana (American Saw-Wort) · S. angustifolia (Narrowleaf Saw-Wort) · S. angustifolia var. angustifolia (Narrowleaf Saw-Wort) · S. angustifolia var. yukonensis (Narrowleaf Saw-Wort) · S. angustifolia yukonensis (Narrowleaf Saw-Wort) · S. densa (Clustered Sawwort) · S. nuda (Nutty Saw-Wort) · S. tilesii (Tiles' Saussurea) · S. tschuktschorum (Tschuktsch's Saussurea) · S. viscida (Sticky Saw-Wort) · S. weberi (Weber's Saw-Wort)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Aspects of nature, in different lands and different climates with scientific elucidations / by Alexander von Humboldt; translated by Mrs. Sabine. London: J. Murray: 1849. url p. 122.
• Compositae newsletter. Columbus, Ohio: Dept. of Botany, Ohio State University, 1975- url p. 4.
• Johnson's Gardeners' dictionary and cultural instructor. London, A. T. De La Mare printing and publishing co., ltd.[1916] url p. 799.
• List of rare, threatened and endemic plants in Europe (1982 edition) Council of Europe url p. 318.
• The Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany. 23 1886-88 London: the Society: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts &amp; Green: ||Williams and Norgate, 1865-1968. url p. 463, p. 466.
• The Review of applied entomology. Farnham Royal, Eng., etc.: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, etc. url p. 720.
• The travels and researches of Alexander von Humboldt / by W. Macgillivray; with a narrative of Humboldt's most recent researches, including his celebrated journey to the Ural Mountains, and the Caspian Sea, etc. London: T. Nelson, 1857. url p. 374.
• Lipschitz, S. J. 1979. Rod Saussurea DC. (Asteraceae). Leningrad.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2671060
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Ast-7356
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13764724
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:242076-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 451280

Footnotes

1. David J. Keil "Saussurea". in Flora of North America Vol. 19, 20 and 21 Page 58, 83, 165. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.