Unknown Campanula

[Lori S.]

I've looked up all the Campanula spp. I've started from seed over the last few years and can't find a match for this one.  Does anyone recognize it?  Thank you for any suggestions.

[Lesley Cox]

Perhaps a form of C. rotundifolia? It has a wide distribution and varies quite a lot. When not in flower the growth is more of a flattish pad of roundish foliage then the flower stems come up above the pad and the leaves along the stems are like those in your photos. But no doubt there are others like it.

[Lori S.]

Thank you very much, Lesley.   Hmm, possible...  if a slightly disappointing realization, since I already have a swath of it in the front yard... and even (I realize now) a patch on the edge of the tufa garden (which was also supposed to be something else)! ;-)
The C. rotundifolia in the front yard has the roundish leaves at the base, which are abandoned in favour of more linear leaves by flowering time:
 

Some apparent differences:   This plant has a couple of roundish leaves at the base, which look somewhat distorted - mostly are fairly wide (up to 2cm), lanceolate leaves.  Also, the flowers are nodding, whereas C. rotundifolia's flowers seem to be generally upright, or tilted at 90 degrees (but not almost downfacing as on this plant), on long pedicels (whereas the pedicels are short on this plant).  The flowers are flatter, and petals are much more deeply cut.  Flowers are also a fair bit larger.  There's a very reduced leaf that sticks up just above each flower on the short pedicel... I don't see this on my C. rotundifolia.
I went through Graham Nicholl's Dwarf Campanulas last night.  I'll go through it again and look more closely at those said to be similar to C. rotundifolia (he listed a few) and see if I can figure it out.

P. S.  Editing this as I go...

[Lori S.]

I've concluded that it's Campanula aristata, after all, which is what the seeds were supposed to be.  The calyces on the flowers are shorter than on the plants that show up in a Google image search, but I assume that's a bit of variation within the species.  Nicholl's description in Dwarf Campanulas seems to fit.

[Maggi Young]

I suspect  you are correct, Lori.  This illustration  http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=86666&flora_id=5 is not hugely helpful but it does at least show the  ridges on the calyx seen in your plant.

[reifuan]

umm.. I beg to differ, The Flora  clearly states:

Flowers solitary,

, which is not the case with your plant. Also, the capsule is shaped differently, and the leaves on your plant are not linear.

[Maggi Young]

umm.. I beg to differ   

Do you have a  suggestion for a species ?

[reifuan]

I was thinking maybe Campanula calcicola, based on a single illustration from the flora of China, but I''m not at all sure, the single source of photos's for this plant (that I can find) shows something that looks nothing like the illustration, also the Flora of China description states:

Lower cauline leaves long petiolate..  Flowers terminal, often upright

neither of which seems to fit.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200022860
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=119760&flora_id=2

[Maggi Young]

Quite a mystery!

[Lori S.]

Thanks for your comments - there's an answer somewhere! 

Now that I've matched up the plants in the garden to my seed-starting records (from 2012), the seeds were collected by M. Pavelka at 4500m, Heizi Shan, Sichuan, China; description:  "erect stems 15-25cm, lanceolate lvs, several big blue flws, alpine meadows, 2008 seed".

Attached below is the key to Campanula spp. from eFlora of China, which, if you follow it, says "1...flowers solitary, terminal, or several terminal on main stems or branches" (which then leads to 2 and then to 3. C. aristata).
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=105395

I think my plant would comply with "flowers... several terminal on main stems or branches", no?

The description of C. aristata itself from eFlora of China doesn't appear to elaborate on the point:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200022859

The description from eFlora of Pakistan is worded differently and much more tersely, and says "flowers solitary, terminal".
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200022859

Here are photos said to be of C. aristata.  This one looks similar, other than the calyx length:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=campanula+aristata&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=uXXIU4zeA4GJogSZw4GYCw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1535&bih=990#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=UwzHgxif0vtf6M%253A%3BQ8xB2rr6LGiVhM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.chadwellseeds.co.uk%252F_%252Frsrc%252F1378323244267%252Fcampanula%252FP1080102.JPG%253Fheight%253D765%2526width%253D1026%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.chadwellseeds.co.uk%252Fcampanula%3B1024%3B764

These two, again, have longer calyces, and longer sepals:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=campanula+aristata&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=uXXIU4zeA4GJogSZw4GYCw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1535&bih=990#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=omwlaeVDBTtmfM%253A%3BZttA9PctX-eP5M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.flowersofindia.net%252Fcatalog%252Fslides%252FLong-Sepal%252520Bellflower.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.flowersofindia.net%252Fcatalog%252Fslides%252FLong-Sepal%252520Bellflower.html%3B600%3B449
http://www.jansalpines.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=30191

Looking more closely, my plants (I have 3 of them, after some searching around) do have roundish-oval basal leaves with petioles, though not extremely long ones.
 

The eFlora of China description and drawing for C. calicosa seems to show a plant with prominently toothed leaves ("margin crenate or callose-denticulate") whereas my plants have some subtle, variable crenation and the odd tooth (see the newly added photos above):
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=119760&flora_id=2
This photo of the holotype for C. calcicola seems to show a lot of rounded basal leaves (from what I can make out without paying for the service!):
http://plants.jstor.org/specimen/e00265669

I'll take a crack at keying it out, too, from the eFlora key. 

[Great Moravian]

Flora of China claims for Campanula aristata
Hypanthium very narrowly oblong, 0.5-1.5 cm; calyx lobes filiform, (3-)7-18(-25) mm, usually longer than corolla.
Your plants haven't very narrowly oblong hypanthia nor calyx lobes longer than corolla, so it is not the species.
The flowers are pendent and not erect, therefore it isn't Campanula calcicola nor Campanula chrysospleniifolia.
Perhaps you can reply the following question.
Are the plants with horizontal rhizomes; stems and leaves glabrous
or without horizontal rhizomes; stems and leaves pubescent

[Lori S.]

Thanks for the guidance.

Flora of China claims for Campanula aristata
Hypanthium very narrowly oblong, 0.5-1.5 cm; calyx lobes filiform, (3-)7-18(-25) mm, usually longer than corolla.
Your plants haven't very narrowly oblong hypanthia nor calyx lobes longer than corolla, so it is not the species.

Yes, as I pointed out in comparison to the available photos (although I referred to "calyx" length rather than the "hypanthium").  Note, also, the weasel word "usually"...

On my plants:
 - height:  max 33 cm
 - hypanthium length:   3- 8 mm
 - calyx lobes are triangular (not filiform, i.e. threadlike) and 6 - 15 mm
 - corolla is 18 mm; lobes are 10 mm, so roughly 1/2 as long as the tube
 - capsules have not yet formed so I can't tell where the pores will be; base could be considered clavate (club-shaped)?

Perhaps you can reply the following question.
Are the plants with horizontal rhizomes; stems and leaves glabrous
or without horizontal rhizomes; stems and leaves pubescent

The plants have not produced any sign of rhizomatous growth yet, since being planted in 2012, and I don't plan to dig any of them up to look. 
The leaves are not glabrous, nor are they pubescent per se, but they could fall under the phrase "variously pubescent" perhaps; there are short white hairs along the leaf edges and along the veins.

There are still basal leaves present at anthesis (flowering) but many of the cauline leaves immediately above the base are dried up... so its difficult to decide which branch of the first step of the key to follow.  As the capsules have not yet formed, I don't know where the pores will be (above middle or towards base).

If I choose to follow the 1st branch (assuming capsule is poricidal above the middle, etc.), I could end up at C. crenulata:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200022866

I can find two photos said to be of it, but neither with enough detail to be overly useful:
http://www.plantphoto.cn/tu/858152
http://www.plantphoto.cn/tu/858153