Cremanthodium indicum - Indian Cremanthodium

Indian Cremanthodium is a newly discovered (2021) perennial herb from Tawang, 16-24 cm tall. Flower-heads are borne singly, looking down. Ray florets are creamy, 12-14; blade oblong, 2-2.3 x 0.5-0.7 cm, tip flat, distinctly 3-toothed; tube 1.5-2 mm long. Tubular florets numerous, creamy, 8-9 mm long; tube 2-2.5 mm long; limb 6-6.5 mm long; style 8-9 mm long. Involucre is hemispheric, 1.5-1.7 x 2.5-3.3 cm, outside purplish velvet-hairy; phyllaries 12-14 in 2 rows; outer phyllaries lanceshaped, 12-15 x 2.3-2.8 mm, light green with purplish tinge, purplish velvet-hairy, margins purplish fringed with hairs, tip tapering; inner phyllaries elliptic, 12-14 x 3-5 mm. Stem is solitary, erect, 4-5 mm in diameter, densely pale yellow woolly throughout. Basal leaves are stalked; leaf-stalks 1.5-4.5 cm long, pale yellow velvet-hairy, winged; leaf blades elliptic-obovate, 2-6 x 1-3 cm, tip pointed-blunt or rounded, base narrowed, margins fringed with hairs, entire or shallowly rounded toothed, above hairless, below velvet-hairy on lateral veins; lateral veins 5-6 pairs. Stem leaves are 5-9, stalkless; the lowest one like basal leaf, base stem-clasping; the middle and distal ones smaller, lanceshaped, margin entire, tip pointed. Seedpods are obovoid, 2.5-3.5 mm long. Indian Cremanthodium is apparently endemic to Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh. Flowering: July-August.