Caltha scaposa | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Ranunculales |
Family: | Ranunculaceae |
Genus: | Caltha |
Species: | C. scaposa |
Binomial name | |
Caltha scaposa | |
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]
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]
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]
Caltha scaposa is most closely related to the common marsh-marigold C. palustris, with which it composes the Caltha-section. [4]
Ranunculaceae is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide.
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.
Caltha is a genus of rhizomatous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, to which ten species have been assigned. They occur in moist environments in temperate and cold regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Their leaves are generally heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, or are characteristically diplophyllous. Flowers are star shaped and mostly yellow to white. True petals and nectaries are missing but the five or more sepals are distinctly colored. As usual in the buttercup family there is a circle of stamens around free carpels.
Parnassiaceae Gray were a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Celastrales. The family is not recognized in the APG III system of plant classification. When that system was published in 2009, Parnassiaceae were treated as subfamily Parnassioideae of an expanded family Celastraceae.
Hibbertia, commonly known as guinea flowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Dilleniaceae. They are usually shrubs with simple leaves and usually yellow flowers with five sepals and five petals. There are about 400 species, most of which occur in Australia but a few species occur in New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji and Madagascar.
Caltha leptosepala, the white marsh marigold, twinflowered marsh marigold, or broadleaved marsh marigold, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the buttercup family. It is native to western North America from Alaska to New Mexico, where it grows in wet mountain habitats in alpine and subalpine regions. There are two general wild types of this species, one native to the interior and one that grows along the Pacific coast and coastal mountains, but these are not always treated separately.
Lathyrus palustris is a species of wild pea known by the common name marsh pea. It is native to Europe, Asia, and North America. It is a perennial herb with leaves made up of oval-shaped or oblong leaflets a few centimeters long. It has branched, coiled tendrils. The plant bears an inflorescence of two to eight pinkish purple pea flowers each up to two centimeters wide. The fruit is a dehiscent legume pod.
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.
Paeonia delavayi is a low woody shrub belonging to the peonies, that is endemic to China. The vernacular name in China is 滇牡丹. In English it is called Delavay's tree peony, Delavay peony, Dian peony, and dian mu dan. It mostly has red brown to yellow, nodding flowers from mid May to mid June. The light green, delicate looking deciduous leaves consist of many segments, and are alternately arranged on new growth.
Paeonia ludlowii, is a deciduous shrub of medium height, belonging to the tree peony section Moutan of the genus Paeonia, and endemic to southeast Tibet. In Tibet it is known as ≠'lumaidao' meaning "God's flower". The vernacular name in Chinese is 大花黄牡丹 meaning "big yellow-flowered peony". In English it is sometimes called Tibetan tree peony or Ludlow's tree peony. It has pure yellow, slightly nodding, bowl-shaped flowers, and large, twice compounded, light green leaves.
Enemion biternatum, commonly known as the false rue-anemone, is a spring ephemeral native to moist deciduous woodland in the eastern United States and extreme southern Ontario.
Caltha appendiculata is a perennial herb plant found in several countries of South America.
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.
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.
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.
Strasburgeria robusta is an evergreen tree with large toothed leaves and large but rather inconspicuous, single, pendulant flowers in a gloomy colorscheme of yellowish with brown markings, with about ten sepals, five petals, ten stamens, a very distinct circular nectar gland with radiating spikes and rather large globular fruits with a long persistent style, with a scent reminiscent of apples, which is endemic to New Caledonia. It is the only recognized species of the genus Strasburgeria.
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.
Ranunculus tripartitus, three-lobed crowfoot, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, which grows in pools and muddy hollows in coastal parts of Europe, North Africa and West Asia. It is rare and endangered throughout its range, and is considered to be an indicator of favourable environmental conditions.