Caltha scaposa

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Caltha scaposa
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Caltha
Species:
C. scaposa
Binomial name
Caltha scaposa
Hook.f. & Thomson, 1855
Synonyms [1]

C. gracilis

Caltha scaposa is a low, perennial herb with one or two yellow hermaphrodite saucer-shaped flowers. This marsh-marigold species belongs to the buttercup family, grows in moist alpine fields and is native to the eastern Himalayas and the mountains on the eastern margin of the Tibetan highland. [2]

Contents

Description

Caltha scaposa has flowers on stems that grow on after flowering from 7 to 24 cm high, with a thick rootstock that branches into many main roots. Its leaves are in a rosette and consist of a leafstalk and a leaf blade. The leafstalk is up to 10 cm long, and has a narrow, membranous and about 2½ cm long sheath at the base. The leaf blade is long hart-shaped or sometimes kidney-shaped (1½-3½ x 1–3 cm), with a blunt tip and an entire, scalloped or tooth-bearing margin. Mostly there are several flowering stems in each plant, which sometimes carry one, small, leaflike stipule and usually one, rarely 2 flowers of about 2½ cm across. As all marsh-marigolds, it lacks petals, but the five to nine (most often six) sepals are petal-like, strikingly yellow, inverted egg-shaped with a blunt tip, 10-15 x 6–8 mm. There are between twenty and forty stamens with flattened yellow filaments that carry yellow pollen, and encircle between ten and twenty carpels which are linear-oblong and prolonged into the persistent style, topped by an oblique and curved stigma. After pollination, the carpels develop into follicles of about 10x3 mm on 1½-3 mm long stalks. They may contain three to six ovoid, black seeds. Flowering occurs between June and August. [1] [2] [3]

C. scaposa differs from C. palustris that co-occurs with it over its entire distribution area because it is much smaller (usually below 20 cm versus usually over 30 cm), leaves are much smaller (1–4 cm compared to 3–25 cm long), flowers are usually solitary (but sometimes with two) with twenty to forty stamens, on a stem that mostly is nude, but occasionally has one small stipule (in C. palustris flowers have fifty to one hundred twenty stamens and are usually with four to nine on a stem that has several stipules, although one or two flowers per stem sometimes occur). The most conclusive difference is the stipitate (stalked) follicles in C. scaposa which are sessile (seated) in C. palustris. The general hart- or kidney-shape of the leaves and the yolk yellow of the flowers are shared characters. C. natans is a floating species with leaves along the rooting stems and with white or pink flowers of less than 1½ cm. Caltha leptosepala that occurs in western North-America mostly has white flowers, and the rare yellow-flowered variety has lanceolate sepals. [1]

Distribution

This species grows in moist alpine meadows and marshy streamsides, in the Himalayas between 3800–4600 m, and in China 2800–4100 m high. It can be found in India (Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh), Nepal, Bhutan, southeastern Tibet and China (southern Gansu, southern Qinghai, western Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan). [2] [3]

Taxonomy

Caltha scaposa is most closely related to the common marsh-marigold C. palustris, with which it composes the Caltha-section. [4]

Related Research Articles

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Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.

<i>Caltha</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Caltha leptosepala</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Paeonia veitchii</i> Species of flowering plant

Paeonia veitchii is a species of herbaceous perennial peony. The vernacular name in China is 川赤芍. This species is ½-1 m high, has a thick irregular taproot and thin side roots, and deeply incised leaves, with leaflets themselves divided in fine segments. It has two to four fully developed flowers per stem, that may be pink to magenta-red or rarely almost white. It is known from central China.

<i>Paeonia delavayi</i> Shrub in the family Paeoniaceae from southwest China

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<i>Enemion biternatum</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Caltha dionaeifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Caltha dioneaefolia is a dwarf perennial herb, of the Buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae) with apparently seated pale yellow flowers with about seven stamens and two to three free carpels and leaves that are reminiscent of those of the Venus flytrap, but very small and with leaflike appendages on the leaf. C. dioneaefolia occurs in the southern Andes of Chili and Argentina, including on Tierra del Fuego and Hermite Island.

<i>Caltha novae-zelandiae</i> Species of flowering plant

Caltha novae-zelandiae, commonly known as New Zealand marsh marigold or yellow caltha, is a small, perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Ranunculaceae, that grows in open vegetations in mountainous areas, and is endemic to New Zealand.

<i>Caltha obtusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Caltha obtusa, commonly known as white caltha, is a small, perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Ranunculaceae, that grows in open vegetations in mountainous areas, and is endemic to New Zealand’s South Island.

Caltha introloba, commonly known as the alpine marsh-marigold is a small hairless, perennial alpine herb, that is endemic to the alpine regions of Australia and Tasmania.

<i>Strasburgeria</i> Genus of trees

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<i>Hibbertia diffusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Hibbertia diffusa, commonly known as wedge guinea flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a prostrate to low-lying shrub with glabrous stems, egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and bright yellow flowers arranged on the ends of branchlets, with twenty to twenty-five stamens arranged around two or three carpels.

Hibbertia argyrochiton is a species of flowering plant in the family Dilleniaceae and is endemic to northern parts of the Northern Territory. It is a shrub densely covered with scales and has elliptic to lance-shaped leaves, and yellow flowers usually arranged singly in leaf axils, with twenty to twenty-four stamens arranged in groups around the two carpels.

<i>Ranunculus tripartitus</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Petra G. Smit (1973). "A Revision of Caltha (Ranunculaceae)". Blumea . 21: 119–150. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  2. 1 2 3 "Caltha scaposa". eFlora of India. Botanical Survey of India. Archived from the original on 2016-01-29. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  3. 1 2 "Caltha scaposa". eFlora of China. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 2016-01-24.
  4. Eric Schuettpelz & Sara B. Hoot (2004). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Caltha (Ranunculaceae) based on chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequences". American Journal of Botany . 91 (2): 247–253. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.2.247. PMID   21653380.