Sanguisorba minor subsp. balearica

Sanguisorba minor subsp. balearica (Bourg. ex Nyman) Muñoz Garm. & C.Navarro, Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 56: 176 (1998) (Syn: Poterium alveolatum Spach ex Pomel; Poterium alveolosum Spach; Poterium balearicum (Bourg. ex Nyman) Bourg. ex Porta; Poterium cinctum Lojac.; Poterium crispum Pomel; Poterium delortii Jord.; Poterium gaillardotii Boiss.; Poterium garganicum Ten.; Poterium hybridum T.Nees; Poterium muricatum Spach; Poterium obscurum Jord.; Poterium platylophum Spach ex Jord.; Poterium polygamum Waldst. & Kit.; Poterium rhodopeum Velen.; Poterium sanguisorba subsp. balearicum (Bourg. ex Nyman) Stace; Poterium sanguisorba subsp. muricatum Bonnier & Layens; Poterium sanguisorba var. polygamum (Waldst. & Kit.) Vis.; Poterium spachianum subsp. balearicum Bourg. ex Nyman; Poterium stenolophum (Spach) Jord.; Sanguisorba gaillardotii (Boiss.) Hayek; Sanguisorba garganica (Ten.) Bertol.; Sanguisorba minor subsp. polygama (Waldst. & Kit.) Cout.; Sanguisorba minor f. rhodopaea (Velen.) Gajic; Sanguisorba polygama (Waldst. & Kit.) Ces.; Sanguisorba rhodopaea (Velen.) Hayek);
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Europe to Medit. and W. Himalaya. S. Africa: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cape Provinces, Czechoslovakia, East Aegean Is., France, Free State, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Morocco, North Caucasus, Northern Provinces, Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya, Yugoslavia; Introduced into: Alabama, Arizona, Baltic States, Belarus, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Denmark, Great Britain, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New South Wales, New York, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Queensland, Québec, Rhode I., South Australia, Tasmania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Western Australia, Wyoming as per POWO;
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Common name: Salad Burnet, Garden burnet, Small burnet, burnet
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Rosaceae Fortnight: Sanguisorba minor Scop. from Srinagar, Kashmir-GSSEP109/109 : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (5)
Sanguisorba minor Scop.,  Fl. carniol. ed. 2, 1:110. 1771 
Syn: Poterium sanguisorba L.
Common names: Salad Burnet, small burnet
Perennial herb up to 60 cm tall with fusiform cylindrical root, ascending to suberect, mostly glabrous, slightly hairy towards base; basal leaves imparipinnate, 6-15 cm long; leaflets 4-12 pairs, 4-20 mm long, alternate or subopposite, elliptic to orbicular, deeply toothed; upper leaves gradually reduced in size; flowers green or tinged purple, in globose heads on long peduncles; lower flowers in head male with nearly 20 stamens, middle flowers bisexual, upper female; sepals usually 4 or more, imbricate; petals absent; carpels 2; fruit an achene included in hardened 4-ridged hypanthium with muricate surfaces.
Growing on open dry grassy slopes above Cheshma Shahi in Srinagar, Kashmir. Photographed in May.

POWO gives distribution of only Sanguisorba minor subsp. balearica (Bourg. ex Nyman) Muñoz Garm. & C.Navarro in our area.

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This elusive herb I photographed from open hillside above Cheshma Shahi in Kashmir in May. The plant barely up to 80 cm tall had alternate pinnate compound leaves up to 12 cm long, with deeply toothed leaflets, 9-13 in number, with two stipules at base, toothed like leaflets. Flowers unisexual, on long peduncles, forming separate globose heads; male flowers with four broadly ovate to nearly orbicular perianth 3-5 mm long, greenish white with membranous margin, stamens numerous hanging; female flowers with seemingly 4 perianth, appearing three in some, green with membranous margin, persistent; fruits of apparantly four nutlets, fused along raised margin.
I am not able to even identify the family, which initially I thought to be Urticaceae, but four nutlets are confusing me. Could you kindly provide a clue.

Dr. Bruno (Vienna) and Dr. Malecot for Group TAXACOM helped me in identification of this herb as Sanguisorba minor (syn: Poterium sanguisorba L.), a plant distributed in Persia, Waziristan in Pak, Europe but I suppose not reported from India. The leaves of Garden burnet or salad burnet are often used for culinary purposes.

POWO gives distribution of only Sanguisorba minor subsp. balearica (Bourg. ex Nyman) Muñoz Garm. & C.Navarro in our area.

I tried to find differences between subsp. minor and subsp. balearica, but no luck. Maybe someone can help.

Interesting find, …!
There’s a 2012 paper reporting Sanguisorba minor from India as a new report, although without mentioning a subspecies name.
https://taiwania.ntu.edu.tw/pdf/tai.2012.57.410.pdf

As per the protologue (https://rjb.revistas.csic.es/index.php/rjb/article/view/228/224), the two subspecies can be distinguished by the following key (Google translate from Spanish text):
*   Plants with urnules with wingless ribs or with narrow and fine wings, with more or less reticulated faces or sometimes with some short teeth — subsp. minor
** Plants with the always winged urnules -large wings, sometimes very wide, with entire margin to more or less erous- and faces covered with acute ridges — subsp. balearica (S. minor subsp. muricata Briq., nom. illeg.)

Thanks a lot … for the key. This image should seal S. minor subsp. balearica

 

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References:
POWO  Catalogue of Life (Poterium sanguisorba subsp. polygamum (Waldst. & Kit.) Asch. & Graebn.)  Flowers of India  BSI Flora of India