Botanical name: Saussurea solaris    Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)

Solar Snow Lotus is a rare, newly described (2020) plant from Arunachal Pradesh. It is a 3-5 cm tall, perennial, monocarpic, stemless herb, with many leaves in a dense rosette, subtending a cluster of numerous stalkless purple flower-heads. to 5 mm in diam. Leaves are leathery, elliptic to obovate or ovate, both surfaces sparsely hairy, margin entire or remotely finely toothed, ciliolate, tip somewhat pointed to almost blunt; outer leaves 10-16 cm long; leaf blade 5-9 x 2-4 cm, tapering to a winged leaf-stalk up to 8 cm. Inner leaves are stalkless, 3-5 x 1-2 cm, margin wavy, sometimes curled, above purple to purplish red at base, usually green in middle and apical part. Flowers are borne in a hemispheric, 7-10 cm across cluster, with 30 to 60 flower-heads aggregated in center of leaf rosette. Flower-heads are stalkless, with 15 to 20 florets. Solar Snow Lotus is only known from Arunachal Pradesh, at altitudes of 4000-4300 m.Flowering: August-September.

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The flower labeled Solar Snow Lotus is ...