Kleinia grandiflora (Wall. ex DC.) Rani (1983: 801)

Kleinia grandiflora (Wall. ex DC.) Rani (1983: 801) View in CoL .

Notonia grandiflora Wall. ex Candolle (1833: 518) .

Cacalia grandiflora Wallich (1831 : no. 3147), nom. nud.

Senecio grandiflorus (Wall. ex DC.) Jacobsen (1954: 1026) , nom. illeg. (Art. 53.1).

Senecio ampliflorus Rowley (1955: 31) .

Type :— South India, Wallich 3147 (holotype K! , isotype E! ).

= Notonia corymbosa Candolle (1837: 442) . Senecio corymbosus (DC.) Jacobsen (1954: 1022) , nom. illeg. (Art. 53.1). Type :— South India, Wight 1485 (holotype G-DC!, isotype K!).

= Notonia crassissima Wall. ex Candolle (1837: 442) . Cacalia crassissima Wallich (1831 : no. 3155), nom. nud. Senecio crassus Jacobsen (1954: 1023) , nom. illeg. (Art. 53.1). Type :— India, Wallich 3155 (holotype K!).

= Notonia balsamica Dalzell & Gibson (1861: 133) . Kleinia balsamica (Dalzell & Gibs.) Halliday (1987: 442) . Type:— India, N.A.Dalzell s.n. (isotype K!).

Erect, perennial subshrub 1–2.5 m high. Stems angled, succulent, 3–6 cm in diam., glabrous, bright deeply green, fleshy with prominent leaf scars. Leaves spiral, fleshy, usually congested at tips of new shoots, pallid milky green, glaucous; blade lanceolate, oblanceolate or obovate, 4–14 × 1.5–4 cm, subsucculent, sparsely pubescent or glabrous, base cuneate, margins entire, apex obtuse; petioles 2–4 cm long, exauriculate, glabrescent. Inflorescence scapose on short lateral or terminal shoots born on mature stems; scape stout, unbranched or branched, up to 15 cm long, 3–6-bracteate beneath capitulum, bracts linear, up to 5 mm long. Capitula homogamous, 1.9–2 cm long, 2– 2.5 cm in diam. Involucre cylindrical, slightly constricted at top; phyllaries 12–13, fleshy, green with purple tip, lanceolate, 15–16 × 4–5 mm, acuminate, margins hyaline, scarious, glaucous, minutely pubescent inside tip. Florets c. 40, whitish to yellowish, (15–)18(–20) mm long, lobes at least 3 mm long. Anthers yellow-orange, 4 mm long, base very shortly sagittate; collar c. 1 mm long; apical appendage lanceolate, c. 1 mm long. Style slender, greenish; arms c. 4 mm long with short triangular-conical appendages. Achene cylindrical, c. 3.5 mm long, with 12 ribs, glabrous. Pappus of 100–110 bristles, white, caducous, 10–15 mm long.

Phenology:—Flowering in May–July.

Ecology:—Growing at rock edges and in open places at 900–1200 m elev. on a steep limestone massif.

Distribution area:— Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Thailand.

Distribution in Thailand: — Chiang Mai: Doi Chiang Dao; Mae Hong Son: Pang ma pha district; Pha Yao: Ban pang tham, Chiang kham district ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ).

Specimens examined: — THAILAND. Mae Hong Son: Pang ma pha district , elev. 900 m, 6 January 2014, W. Pongamornkul 3710 ( QBG) ; Chiang Mai: Doi Chiang Dao , elev. 1000 m, 13 May 2008, W. Pongamornkul 2285 ( QBG), 17 April 2008, P. Suksathan 4412 ( QBG) .

Conservation status: —In Thailand, this plant is known only from three localities in the limestone mountain area, Doi Chiang Dao, Chiang Mai province Ban Thung sa lae, Pang ma pha district, Mae Hong Son province and Ban pang tham, Chiang kham district, Pha Yao province in the northern part of the country, therefore it should be treated as rare species ( IUCN 2013).

Note: —In Thailand, plants resembling Kleinia include the genera of Senecioneae that share floral features such as phyllaries free, arranged in a single row, and tubular bisexual florets. The genus most similar to this is Gynura which is characterized by its herbaceous habit and long, erect, subulate and papillose style arm appendages, whereas Kleinia has a perennial shrubby habit and short triangular-conical style arms ( Vanijajiva & Kadereit 2011).