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Microglossa albescens (DC.) C. B. Cl.

Modern name

Aster albescens (DC.) Wall. ex Hand.-Mazz.

Synonyms

Aster Albescens (DC.) Hand.-Mazz.; Amphiraphis albescens DC.; Aster cabulicus Lindl.

A plant with semi-woody, erect stems, growing in tufts about 3 ft high, very pithy, and clothed with a grey down. Leaves alternate, lance-shaped, 2 to 5 in. long, 12 to 1 in. wide, tapered to both ends, the margins entire or with minute teeth, grey and downy beneath. Flower-heads 13 in. in diameter, produced during July, in compound corymbs 3 to 6 in. across, terminating the current season’s growth. Ray-florets about fourteen, narrow, pale lilac-blue or bluish white; disk-flowers yellow.

Native of the Himalaya, up to 12,000 ft; introduced to the Chiswick gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society about 1840. The shoots made during the summer die back considerably during the winter, almost to the ground in severe seasons. The flowers are of a rather indeterminate blue, and the plant has no particular merit except in flowering in late summer. Propagated by cuttings of the young growths in heat, or by dividing old plants.


Genus

Microglossa

Other species in the genus

[No species article available]