Cousinia thomsonii

---

JUN 09 Lahaul- Spiti;

PLANT FOR ID 119 SMP JUN 09 Lahaul- Spiti – indiantreepix | Google Groups

---

Adding some images scanned in from slides taken in the 1980s (incl. one of mine) from Ladakh & Lahoul.

Whilst not close-ups, they show something of the distinctive foliage (and my shot, of the habitat).

Always important to photograph the leaves as well as flowers (more specifically flower-heads in the case of members of the Asteraceae family).

… images from Spiti Valley are good but no foliage shown see: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/species/a—l/ar/asteraceae/carduoideae/cousinia/cousinia-thomsonii

PLEASE, given that it now costs nothing to take lots of photos with digital cameras, take AT LEAST 6, if not 15-20 images of ALL species encountered (follow instructions I have given for photographing plants in other posts). Then select the best ones to post on eFI in future years.   Such action will greatly help with the identification process and provide a reference resource for those attempting to reliably identify plants in the future.

Cousinia thomsonii was found by members of the University of Southampton Expedition to Zanskar in 1981 at Skagam, 3500m, frequent in moist soil at the edge of fields.

According to Koelz the stems are eaten raw in Lahoul and the leaves as tinder in the flint & steep pouches (Sazk) which were indispensable to herdsmen and travellers in the past.  The tinder is also supplied by other plants with suitably hairy leaves such as Gnaphalium, Saussurea and Erigerons.

Stewart recorded it from N.Pakistan to Ladakh at 2700-4500m.  Stewart listed 26 species of Cousinia from Pakistan.

At the time of completion of his Annotated Catalogue, Rechinger of Vienna, who did a great deal of work on this genus, which is apparently the second largest in Afghanistan with more than 100 species, had borrowed pressed specimens from Kew and Gordon College, Rawalpindi, so he expected some of the names and determinations in his list would be changed and new ones added once the next paper on the subject was published but aged 82, Stewart, reasonably enough could not wait (even though he lived to be 102).

Thankfully, C.thomsonii is the only species of the genus known from the Trans-Himalayan districts of India.

This was at Namika la (a pass on the Srinagar Kargil route) at 3700 mt. ASL in August 2022.

I also agree with id as per images at Cousinia thomsonii C.B.Clarke

---