''Cyananthus formosus'' is a species of

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants bel ...

. It is native to grassy slopes and forests of northwest

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In Mandarin the species is known as 美丽蓝钟花 (mei li lan zhong hua). Originally described by

Ludwig Diels Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pritzel thro ...

in 1912 in the Notes of the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, the species is a small, blue-flowered plant suitable for

Alpine gardens An alpine garden (or alpinarium, alpinum) is a domestic or botanical garden, or more often a part of a larger garden, specializing in the collection and cultivation of alpine plants growing naturally at high altitudes around the world, such as in ...

Description

''Cyananthus formosus'' grows to be less than tall once mature. Its flowers are a dark violet-blue color and are in diameter. The

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusin ...

are similar to those of

carrots The carrot (''Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the Daucus ...

and can be up to wide. Its

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

is robust and is often branched. It has persistent scales which are linear or lance-like and in size. The stems grow in dense tufts and can grow lying down or reaching upwards. They are a pale purple color, slender in width, and anywhere from long. They are simple or have short branches. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

alternate along the stem, and the lowest leaves on the stem are scale-like. The leaf blade is oval or rhombus shaped and measures by . The underside of the leaf has dense white hairs, while the upper side either has sparse white hairs or is wholly free of hairs. The base of the leaf has an obtuse or somewhat truncate shape; the edges are curled back and are finely notched with three to five lobes; the

apex The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics) A-Bomb Abomination Absorbing Man Abraxas Abyss Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...

is also truncate. The leafstalk is long. The

flowers Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

are large, ranging from in diameter. They are solitary on the ends of the main stems and branches, and have a

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

of four or five leaves surrounding them. The

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branch ...

are long. The calyx is densely covered with long stiff hairs of a pal brown color. The tube is cylindrical and long. The lobes are triangular or nearly so, measuring by in size, with both sides having hairs. The ovary has five locii and is nearly as long as the calyx tube and the style is extended up to the throat of the corolla. ''Cyananthus formosus'' is similar to '' Cyananthus delavayi''. The color of their flowers are particularly similar, being almost the same shade of deep violet-blue. However, ''C. formosus'' is noticeably larger, among other minor differences.

Taxonomy

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of the species was collected by

George Forrest George Forrest may refer to: *G. Topham Forrest (George Topham Forrest, 1872–1945), principal architect for the London County Council *George Forrest (author) (1915–1999), American author and musician *George Forrest (botanist) (1873–1932), S ...

in either 1906 or 1908. The type location of the specimen was on the eastern flank of the

Lijiang Lijiang ( zh, s= ), formerly romanized as Likiang, is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China. It has an area of and had a population of 1,253,878 at the 2020 census whom 288,787 lived in the built-up area (metro) ...

mountains. The specimen is now housed at the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

. ''Cyananthus chungdienensis'' is a synonym of ''C. formosus''. Originally described in 1965 by

Wu Zhengyi Wu Zhengyi (; June 13, 1916 – June 20, 2013) was a Chinese botanist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Wu specialized in Botanical Geography and Medicinal Botany. He is also known by the alternative spellings of 'Wu Ch ...

as its own species, it is no longer an accepted name.

Distribution and habitat

''Cyananthus formosus'' is found in

in southwest

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and northwest

near the localities of Muli, Heqing,

, and

Zhongdian Shangri-La (; ) is a county-level city in northwestern Yunnan province, China, named after the mythical land depicted in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon''. It is the capital and largest city of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is border ...

. Its habitat is on grassy slopes, in forest glades, on the edges of forests, and among

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is ap ...

, at elevations of .

Ecology

''Cyananthus formosum'' is a

flowering plant which blooms in late spring and early summer. It requires full sun and is

hardy Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, ...

in temperatures as low as . While it is no longer in cultivation, the species is appropriate for

, and when placed in a container it requires excellent drainage.

References

{{Cyananthus Navbox Campanuloideae Flora of Yunnan Flora of Sichuan