Cremanthodium is a genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae, placed in the tribe Senecioneae within the order Asterales. It was described by the English botanist George Bentham in 1873, in Hooker's Icones Plantarum (volume 12), which included the type illustrations and Latin diagnoses for the genus.
The genus is native to the high mountains of China and the Himalayas, occurring in Bhutan, China, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Species counts vary by source: the Flora of China treatment recognizes about 69 accepted species, 46 of them endemic to China, while broader taxonomic databases list well over 100 names when synonyms and infraspecific taxa are included.
Plants are perennial herbs that typically grow from a short rhizome bearing fleshy roots and a rosette of basal leaves, from which a usually solitary, scape-like flowering stem arises. Leaves are petiolate with a broadly sheathing base, and their veining may be palmate, pinnate, or parallel depending on the species. Stem leaves are alternate and bract-like. The flower heads (capitula) are borne singly or in a raceme and are characteristically nodding — a habit reflected in the Chinese name for the genus, 垂头菊属 ("drooping-head chrysanthemum genus"). The involucre is hemispheric, with phyllaries arranged in one or two rows. Outer florets are usually female and ray-like, while central florets are tubular and bisexual with a five-lobed limb; the fruit is a glabrous, ribbed achene topped with a pappus of fine hairs.
A well-known member of the genus is Cremanthodium arnicoides, which illustrates the genus's alpine daisy-relative appearance and is commonly used to represent the genus in botanical references. Other widely recognized species include C. atrocapitatum, C. citriflorum, C. principis, C. pulchrum, and C. variifolium.
Distribution
Cremanthodium is native to the high-elevation regions of China and the Himalayas, including Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The Flora of China treatment records about 69 species for the genus, 46 of which are endemic to China.
Taxonomy Notes
The genus was described by George Bentham in 1873 in Hooker's Icones Plantarum and is placed in family Asteraceae, tribe Senecioneae, order Asterales. Species counts differ between sources: Flora of China recognizes about 69 accepted species, while GBIF's backbone taxonomy lists 108 descendant names once synonyms and infraspecific taxa are included.
