Introduction:
Thin-leaf Blumea densiflora is an annual or perennial herbaceous plant, subshrub or vine, often with a fragrance. The stem is erect, ascending, prostrate, or climbing, stout or slender, cylindrical, with little woody base, and covered with hairs. The leaves are alternate, sessile, stalked, or extended along the stem to form wings, with fine teeth, coarse teeth, heavy serrations, or lobed or pinnately divided, rarely entire.
Morphological Characteristics:
Thin-leaf Blumea densiflora (newly proposed)
The leaves are thin and membranous, with almost no hairs on both sides or sparsely covered with short soft hairs; lobes bent upwards.
Dense-flowered Blumea densiflora (original variety)
Herbaceous or subshrub-like. The stem is stout, erect, 1-3 meters tall, woody at the base, 1-2 centimeters or thicker in diameter, branched, with ridges, covered with rusty-brown glandular pubescence, more dense on young branches and inflorescence axes, with internodes 4-6 centimeters long. The stem leaves are broadly elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or lanceolate, 22-42 centimeters long, 8-16 centimeters wide, gradually narrowing at the base into a narrow-winged petiole, sometimes with teeth-like or triangular appendages on both sides, with a small pointed tip at the top, margin pinnately shallowly or deeply lobed, lobes with upward-pointing fine teeth, glandular pubescent on the upper surface, densely hairy on the lower surface, with prominent midrib on both sides, forming a wide groove on the upper surface and 3-4 ridges on the lower surface, with numerous lateral veins; upper leaves are smaller, oblong, 7-20 centimeters long, 3-8 centimeters wide, margin pinnately shallowly lobed or with coarse teeth. Capitula are numerous, 5-7 millimeters in diameter, with short stalks, arranged in leafy panicles at the stem and branch apex; involucre campanulate, about 7 millimeters long; involucral bracts about 5 layers, green, outer ones long elliptic or long elliptic-lanceolate, 1-3 millimeters long, pointed at the apex, densely hairy on the back, middle and inner ones linear, 5-8 millimeters long, slender pointed at the apex, dry membranous margin, sparsely hairy on the back; receptacle flat, honeycomb-shaped, about 1.5-2 millimeters in diameter, hairless. Flowers are yellow; female flowers are numerous, with slender tubular corolla, 3.5-4.5 millimeters long, 3-4 lobed in the limb, hairless; hermaphrodite flowers are fewer in number, with tubular corolla, about the same length as female flowers, 5 shallow lobes in the limb, lobes triangular, with multicellular jointed hairs. Achene is cylindrical, about 1 millimeter long, with ridges, covered with white soft hairs. Corolla hairs are reddish-brown, rough-hairy, about 5 millimeters long. Flowering period is from November to April of the following year.
Habitat:
It is found in western Yunnan (Jingdong). It grows on moist slopes at an altitude of 2800 meters. It is also distributed in northeastern India and Sikkim.
Summary:
The base of the leaves is rounded or pointed, with different types of serrations or pinnate divisions, without spine-like teeth, and covered with different types of hairs on the upper surface. The head-like inflorescences are arranged in cone-shaped panicles; the outer involucral bracts are linear; the corolla of female flowers is 2-4 lobed, hairless or with glandular dots; the corolla of hermaphrodite flowers has glandular dots, soft hairs or multicellular jointed hairs; all stamens are developed. The achenes are ridged; the corolla hairs are reddish-brown to yellow-white.
Related Species:
Varieties related to "Thin-leaf Blumea densiflora DC. var. hookeri (C.B. Clarke ex Hook.f.) Chang & Tseng" include:
- Blumea aromatica DC.
- Blumea balsamifera (L.) DC.
- Blumea densiflora DC.
- Blumea densiflora DC. var. densiflora
- Blumea formosana Kitam.
- Blumea henryi Dunn
- Blumea lanceolaria (Roxb.) Druce
- Blumea martiniana Vaniot
