甘松属 gan song shu

Herbs, perennial. Rhizomes short, stout, branching. Caudices robust, densely covered with fibrous or lamellar old leaf sheaths, crowned with rosulate leaves. Flowering stems emerging below rosettes. Rosulate leaves narrowly spatulate or linear-oblanceolate, veins 3-5, parallel, base attenuate into petiole, margin entire, apex obtuse. Cauline leaves usually 2- or 3-paired, lanceolate, smaller apically. Cymes aggregated into a terminal capitulum; involucral bracts 2- or 3-paired; each flower subtended by a bract; bracteoles 2, small. Calyx 5-dentate, enlarged in fruit. Corolla campanulate; tube gibbous basally; limb 5-lobed. Stamens 4. Sterile locules of fruit not reduced.

Two species: the Himalaya; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Nardostachys jatamansi (D. Don) Candolle