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Botanical Description

Leaves bullate, deciduous, oblong-spathulate, 7-15cm long, the margins sharply crisped-dentate, white farinose or lacking farina, tapering to a broadly winged stalk. Flowers purple-blue, 7-10mm across, 20-40 carried in a disk-like flattened head, on an often farinose stem 10-25cm or more high.. Central flowers sterile and do not open, frequently farinose.  A very variable complex with several subspecies. Ssp. crispata from Sikkim to Burma lacks any meal and the corolla has spreading lobes; late spring. Ssp. mooreana from Sikkim is heavily farinose and robust with a corona of large green bracts. Ssp. capitata from east Nepal to Bhutan is thickly white-farinose and often flowers in autumn. All subspecies are readily grown from seed, flowering in one year, but are short-lived.

a, P. capitata; b, P. pinnatifida; c, P. sapphirina; d, P. sherrifae; e, P. soldanelloides; f, P. wigramiana;