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Saussurea is a Chinese and Himalayan genus of composites. The best of them are high alpines with amazing wooly inflorescences at ground level. S.nepalensis
is said to be one of the easier weedy species, but it is giving me some problems, and by spring it may have departed its pot. In fact it turned out to be a (weak) survivor. It was never happy in a pot in the greenhouse but I had no confidence at all in its survival in the garden. Six months after I got it (from an AGS show) it started to produce a bud. A slug ate through the pedicel and the plant died. Others have done a better job than me. Chiltern Seeds had it in their catalogue and say: "Saussurea nepalensis is an unusual alpine, with large, purple thistle-like flowers with paper bracts. Basal rosette of foliage, whose deeply lobed leaves have white wooly undersides. Large, dark purple, thistle-like flowers, with papery bracts." Plants of the World online tells me that this is a synonym of Saussurea eriostemon. The Alpine Garden Society online encyclopedia says: "Rosettes solitary or in tight clumps, perennial. Leaves 5-15cm long, spreading or ascending, more or less oblanceolate with many well spaced triangular lobes (dandelion-like), white-woolly beneath. Flowerheads up to 3.5cm across, the florets deep purple, solitary, sessile, or on a stalk almost as long as the leaves, mid summer to early autumn. Kashmir to Tibet, on open slopes at 3200-4900m. Flowers of India says: Saw-wort is a common name for several species of Saussurea. Nepal Saw-wort is a variable plant with the stemp either absent or 2.5-15 cm. Basal leaves are many and pinnately lobed, and are white-wooly on the underside. The lobes are triangular and backward pointing. Stem leaves are few. The flower-head is dark purple, 2-3.5 cm across, erect and solitary. Bracts are papery, lancelike and purple tinged." There is a bit of confusion over the identity of plants in cultivation as S. nepalensis. Since my plant didn't flower I am going to stick with the wrong name rather than risk confusing things further with a "wrong" correction. |
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| 3rd June 2007 | ||
