Soroseris Stebbins

Herbs, perennial, dwarf, with milky latex; stems usually short, thick, hollow, partly or wholly subterranean. Leaves various; lowermost leaves usually replaced by bladeless, petiolar cataphylls. Heads numerous and crowded, cymose or somewhat racemose, 4 - 25 flowered. Involucral bracts 2 - 3 seriate; outermost narrowly elliptic. Ligules yellow or white, often blackish at the base. Stamens 5, appendaged; anthers yellowish, greenish or blackish, flattened. Achenes oblong, somewhat attenuate at the base, abruptly contracted at apex, slightly obcompressed. Pappus multi seriate, setose, simple, setae very numerous, deciduous.

The genus is endemic to the Sino-Himalayan region ca 8 species, 5 in India.

Literature. STEBBINS, G.L. Jr. (1940). Studies in the Cichorieae Dubyaea and Soroseris. Endemics of tho Sino-Himalayan Region. Mem. Torr. Bot. Club. 19(3): 1 - 77

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaf blades elliptic or spathulate; ligules mostly equalling or shorter than the corolla tube

2

b. Leaf blades lanceolate or oblanceolate; ligules exceeding the tube of the corolla

4

2a. Inner involucral bracts 5, equal, with scarious margins; florets 5

3. Soroseris glomerata

b. Inner involucral bracts 4, in 2 unequal pairs, without scarious margins; florets 4

3

3a. Leaves entire or remotely denticulate; involucre 10-13 mm long; anthers 4-5 mm long, yellowish

1. Soroseris deasyi

b. Leaves coarsely dentate; involucre 7-9 mm long; anthers 2-4 mm long, blackish or greenish

5. Soroseris pumila

4a. Involucres 10-16 mm long; pappus setae 10-16 mm long

2. Soroseris gillii

b. Involucres 7-12 mm Jong; pappus setae 6.5-11 mm long

4. Soroseris hookeriana

List of Lower Taxa