Androsace

Androsace chamaejasme, copyright Denis Barthel.

Belongs within: Primulales.

Androsace is a mostly boreal and alpine genus of plants found in Eurasia and North America.

Characters (from Flora of North America): Herbs usually annual or perennial, rarely biennial, sometimes cushion- or mat-forming, rarely slightly succulent. Rhizomes absent; roots fibrous or a slender taproot. Stems ascending, simple. Leaves in single or multiple basal rosettes, simple; petiole absent or obscure, slightly winged; blade lanceolate to spatulate or cuneate, base attenuate, cuneate, or truncate, margins entire or moderately dentate, apex acute to obtuse (often dentate), surfaces usually hairy, hairs grayish white, simple or forked. Scapes 1-25. Inflorescences umbels, 2-20-flowered, involucrate; bracts 1-10. Pedicels absent or erect to arcuate, elongating with age. Flowers homostylous; sepals 5, green, calyx broadly campanulate to subglobose or hemispheric, ± 5-angled, not keeled, glabrous, pilose, or puberulent, lobes shorter than tube; petals 5, white, sometimes fading to pink in age [pink to shades of red], corolla campanulate to salverform, tube yellow, ± inflated, lobes shorter than tube, apex emarginate to entire; stamens included; filaments indistinct, very short; anthers not connivent. Capsules globose to subglobose, valvate, dehiscent nearly to base. Seeds usually 3-4 in perennial species, 20-50+ in annual species, brown, 4-angled to somewhat trigonous, reticulate to almost smooth. x = 10.

<==Androsace
    |--A. chamaejasme C55
    |--A. delavayi O88
    |--A. globifera O88
    |--A. hookeriana O88
    |--A. imbricata C55
    |--A. lactea C55
    |--A. lehmannii O88
    |--A. muscoidea O88
    |    |--A. m. f. muscoidea O88
    |    `--A. m. f. longiscapa O88
    |--A. nortonii O88
    |--A. obtusifolia C55
    |--A. sarmentosa O88
    |--A. strigillosa O88
    |--A. tapete O88
    |--A. villosa C55
    `--A. zambalensis O88

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 1. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[O88] Ohba, H. 1988. The alpine flora of the Nepal Himalayas: an introductory note. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 19–46.