Bot. name: Cirsium sp???
Family: Asteraceae
Date/Time: 28-09-2014 / 09:00AM
Cirsium– species in eFIoraofindia (with details/ keys from published papers/ regional floras/ FRLHT/ FOI/ efloras/ books etc., where ever available)
I hope C. verutum, like C. falconeri but leaves white tomentose beneath, smaller, not woolly
I think this is C. tibeticum (syn. of Cirsium argyracanthum DC. as per POWO) (specimen at POWO), found at higher elevation (above 3000 mtr. as per Nepal’s checklist, compared to 700-2200 mtr. for Cirsium verutum (D. Don) Spreng)
Cirsium verutum (D.Don) Spreng. as per discussions at Confusion between Circium argyracanthum and C. verutum
Only doubts are more sharply spiny leaves and absence of white underside
Leaf underside is white.
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From the previous discussions, there seems to be Confusion between Circium argyracanthum and C. verutum.
Let us have a closer look at its nomenclature:
Cnicus argyracanthus (DC.) C.B.Clarke (Stem cottony, leaves glabrous above cottony or glabrate beneath lobes and teeth strongly spinescent, radical petioled pinnatifid lobes rounded, cauline broader cordate amplexicaul, heads 3/4-1 in. diam, sessile densely fascicled involucrate, invol. bracts with woolly margins and long strong erect or spreading spines, innermost linear acuminate, corolla 1/2 in. white. Carduus argyracanthus, Wall. Cat. 2903.
TEMPERATE HIMALAYA, alt. 6-9000 ft., from Murree to Bhutan (excl. Sikkim).
A more slender plant than C. involucratus, with the leaves always glabrous above and much more numerous smaller and densely fascicled heads. Achenes 1/8 in. long ; pappus 1/2 in., nearly white.)Description above matches with specimens of C. argyracanthum (POWO)- one, two
TEMPERATE HIMALAYA ; from Kashmir to Bhotan, alt. 8-12,000 ft.
Stem as thick below as the little finger, 2-6 ft. high, branched above. Leaves, radical a foot long, pinnatifid to the middle or deeper, or to the base with distant lobes. Heads inclined ; corolla glabrous. Achenes 1/5 in. long, obovoid-oblong, margins obtuse ; pappus 2/3 in., brown.—Western specimens of this have more rigid leaves, spinescent above, and longer stronger invol. spines than the Sikkim ones have. De Candolle describes the corollas as purple, which they appear to be when dry, but they are pale yellow-white when fresh. I have gathered in E. Nipal withered specimens of a plant like this, but with the leaves quite glabrous above and many rows of inner invol. bracts with soft reflexed flat wrinkled tips. I have also seen in Sikkim and the Khasia leaves supposed to belong to this species that are quite glabrous above.)
Cirsium sp?? — enroute Dhel at GHNP – PKA30 (12000 ft.)
An extremely variable plant, 4-10 ft. high, with spreading branches, which passes into C. argyracanthus through var. Wightiana in the Eastern Himalayas and the Nilgherries. The following varieties pass into one another in the most perplexing way. Corolla white, yellow or red (according to Clarke).)Cnicus wallichii var. nepalensis (DC.) Hook.f. (leaves white-tomentose beneath,heads peduncled, inner invol. tracts with broadly dilated scarious reflexed tips in many series more numerous than the outer spiniferous ones, sometimes occupying two thirds of the head. Cnicus arachnoides, Wall. Cat. 2891. C. Wallichii, Clarke Comp. Ind. 219. Cirsium nepalense, DC. Prodr. vi. 642.)GBIF specimen- one (Cnicus wallichii (DC.) C.B.Clarke), POWO specimen- one (Cnicus arachnoides Wall.) and two (Cnicus wallichii var. nepalensis (DC.) Hook.f.)
Cirsium involucratum DC., Cnicus argyracanthus (DC.) C. B. Clarke as syn.) (750-2200 m)
If you agree with my analysis above, I will resurface old threads at Cirsium verutum with correct identification.
while comparing please keep Cirsium vulgare in mind. Although not listed in BSI Flora or FBI, the species is a weed naturalised in many parts of the world including India and Pakistan. The heads resemble C. verutum but leaves are narrower and not white beneath, involucre bracts although green like V. verutum, much more narrower and sharply pointed. and spreading.
I do not think we have any such post in efi so far as per images at POWO.
I am uploading just now
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