- Family:
- Asteraceae Bercht. & J.Presl
- Genus:
- Gynura Cass.
Gynura valeriana Oliv.

[FTEA]
Compositae, H. Beentje, C. Jeffrey & D.J.N. Hind. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2005
- Morphology General Habit
- Perennial herb 0.6–1.8(–3) m high, with unpleasant smell; stem fleshy, erect or procumbent, leafy throughout or only in lower part, with scattered hairs.
- Morphology Leaves
- Leaves thinly fleshy, dark green or grey-green, purplish beneath, ovate to elliptic, 15–50 cm long (including petiolate base), 8–20 cm wide, base decurrent and auriculate, margins deeply lobed to pinnatisect with 1–10 pairs of oblong lobes, margins of lobes denticulate or dentate, apex acute, glabrous or with scattered hairs.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Capitulum
- Capitula in large inflorescences of lateral and terminal crowded groups of 5–20 capitula; stalks of individual capitula 1–3 cm long; involucre obconical, 6–12 mm long; bracts of calyculus 1–6 mm long; phyllaries 10–15, 6–12 mm long, 1 mm wide, with darker tip, glabrous or with scattered hairs.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Florets
- Florets yellow or orange, less often orange-red, scented, 10–12 mm long, expanded in upper third, lobes 1–1.2 mm long; anthers conspicuously yellow.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Achenes 2 mm long, glabrous; pappus white, 7–10 mm long.
- Habitat
- Moist sites in forest, on streamside rocks, and sometimes persisting after forest clearing, rarely as epiphyte in trees; 700–2150 m
- Distribution
- K4/K6 K6 T2 T3 T6 T7
Native to:
Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zaïre
Gynura valeriana Oliv. appears in other Kew resources:
Date | Reference | Identified As | Barcode | Type Status | Has image? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan 1, 2009 | Mwangoka, M.A. [4491], Tanzania | K000614955 | No | ||
Johnston, H.H. [103], Tanzania | K000377684 | Unknown type material | Yes | ||
Mwangoka, M.A. [3198], Tanzania | K000612931 | No |
First published in Hooker's Icon. Pl. 16: t. 1507 (1886)
Accepted by
- Roskov Y. & al. (eds.) (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Literature
Flora of Tropical East Africa
- A.D.Q. Agnew, Upland Kenya Wild Flowers, ed. 1., p. 471 (1974).
- Agnew, A.D.Q. & Agnew, S., Upland Kenya Wild Flowers, ed. 2: 225 (1994).
- C. Jeffrey in Kew Bulletin 41: 929 (1986).
- F.G. Davies in Kew Bulletin 33: 338 (1978).
- Lisowski, Aster. Fl. Afr. Centr. 2: 433 (1991).
- Oliv. in Hook. Ic. 16: t. 1507 (1886)
- Oliv. in Trans. Linn. Soc. 11, 2: 339 (1887).
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Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
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Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0