Plant of the day is Galatella angustissima or narrow-leaf milk Wan

Plant of the day is Galatella angustissima or narrow-leaf milk Wan

    Shown to me as Galatella angustifolia but I could not find any reference to it as such.  I believe it is likely Galatella angustissima as it is found in dry grassland steppes.  Hunting through all the various asters of the region is quite the task though, so I may be in contact with some very knowledgeable Russians for assistance.  All I was able to see was the remnants of the inflorescence but it was still a beautiful plant to see.  It seems an appropriate plant as I was out today learning the many fall asters of Missouri.  Here is something slightly different from Russia with love.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Galatella angustissima (Tausch) Novopokr., flowers. Habitat: steppe on a plateau. Vicinity of Saratov city, Russia.

By Le.Loup.Gris

This photo was taken fairly close to the region we were visiting in Scherbakovsky Nature Park

Taxonomy, etc.:  Galatella is a member of the Asteraceae family.  The Asteraceae family is big, really big.  Something in the neighborhood of 23,600 species and 1,620 genera.  Look out your window, you can probably spot several.  Even those delicious artichokes that we all love, definitely asters.  The problem with a family this large and diverse is that the ID of many species gets VERY involved with the slightest differences in morphology at times.  Galatella was previously included in the Aster genus but was split out with the genus Tripolium.  According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the anatomical differences (especially in the epidermis of the leaf blade) warrants the attribution of these genera.  (Article relating to that stuff).  One thing I've already noticed in my brief experience with international botany is the large amount of synonyms used for various species.  Botany truly should be a worldwide collaboration.  

For this particular genera alone there are about 40-50 species found in C and S Europe and NE Asia: 11 species in China.

Description:  Thanks Flora of China (MBG) project for the help on this one.  Not only do they have a great write-up on the species but the genera as well, with a wonderful key.  I'm not going to get into great detail here but here are the highlights.  10-50cm tall with sessile leaves, not gland-dotted.  Lower leaves with 3 veins, upper leaves with 1 vein.  Capitula are numerous.  What are capitula you ask?  Why the plural of capitulum or head.  See below for a friendly and colorful illustration of some of that juicy composite goodness.  I was also looking at differences in the phyllaries of Liatris species today.  Fun stuff.  Achenes (dry fruit covering the seed) are oblong with a yellowish pappus.  What's a pappus?  Who's your pappus?  See below.

                                        

                                    

Random musings:  I have a picture taken on my phone and labeled at the time of taking as Galatella.  It shows a much different looking plant, mostly because of the yellow flowers.  Seems pretty clear its not G. angustissima.  There may be some yellow Galatella in the area but certainly not the purple one I'm referencing.  I'll have to hunt through photos and hopefully peg these in fall form. 

Anyways, a bit more of a serious post this time to get back into things.  But these next few weeks will feature plants of Russia, specifically areas near and around the Volgograd area.

Enjoy!