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Saussurea angustifolia

(Narrowleaf Saw-Wort)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Narrowleaf Saw-Wort, Common Saussurea, Narrow-Leaved Saw-Wort

Description

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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]

Physical Description

Species Saussurea angustifolia

Plants 3-50 cm; herbage loosely tomentose when young, ± glabrescent . Stems arising from slender rhizomes, usually simple or few, ascending . Leaves basal and cauline, smaller distally, sessile, blades linear to narrowly elliptic , 3-12(-25) cm, bases acute, margins entire or remotely dentate , apices acute. Heads 2-10+ in open or crowded corymbiform arrays; (peduncles 1-5 cm). Involucres 9-14 mm. Phyllaries strongly unequal, the outer ± ovate , inner lanceolate, abaxial faces dark green, usually also tinged dark purplish, pilose or loosely tomentose; tips of outer and mid phyllaries acute. Receptacles scaly . Florets 8-22; corollas purple, 11-15 m , tubes 6-7.5 mm, throats 2-2.5 mm, lobes 3-5. mm; anthers darker purple. Cypselae 3-4 mm; pappus bristles brownish, outer 1-2 mm, the inner 9-10 mm. [source]

Extreme forms of the varieties of Saussurea angustifolia are distinctive, ranging from slender, erect , subglabrous specimens of var. angustifolia to dwarf , densely pubescent forms of vars. viscida and yukonensis. The extremes are connected by intermediates. As is indicated by the synonymy , little unanimity exists in the interpretation of these taxa. I have chosen to follow S. L. Welsh (1974) in treating S. densa as a variety of S. angustifolia rather than as a distinct species. The extent to which the differences among these taxa are genetic or environmentally induced has not been investigated. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May. • Flower Color: black, blue-violet, dark blue, dark purple

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 6-12" tall.

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,793 meters (0 to 5,883 feet).[2]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b. (map)

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Serratula alpina Linnaeus Var. angustifolia Linnaeus

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Comment: Data Providers: IPNI, Tropicos. GCC LSID: urn :lsid:compositae.org:names:B6D36D94-31FD-4DED-AA0A-462C12F56CA8

Last scrutiny: 15-Aug-09

Similar Species

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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

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 02, 2008:

Identifiers

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]
  2. Mean = 554.530 meters (1,819.324 feet), Standard Deviation = 475.580 based on 267 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012