I wouldn't eat any of 'em!
For my part these Stangea/Valeriana things are a complete mystery -so I consulted John Watson in the hope he might be able to help.
John writes, in his inimitable fashion :
"When Peter Cook did a take on Roald Dahl he said "My name used to be Ronald before I dropped the 'n' ". Well, since we're talking Scotland, maybe it's the excellent Tony Stangea after he retired from rugby, became a botanist (not a lot of people know that), and changed the 'r' to 'a'. Although, using the same logic, I suppose you could say he was called Stranger before he dropped the 'r'.
Well, seriously, folks (when was I ever anything else?), to begin with, I'll discount that it's a hoax: a dead-head of hydrangea stuck on a
Pachylaena rosette (see attached) above a salsify root. Next I shall turn to my brilliant talent for tracking stuff down via the Internet and our home bookshelves. At this point I must admit that we've never had the good fortune to face-to-face with a Stangea - so they literally are strangers to us too.
Pachylaena atripicifolia
from a Chileflora pic.
The genus intrigued me way, way back when I started to become seriously interested in the Andean flora as a whole. It was created in 1906 by (Karl) Otto Graebner (1871-1933), and presumably named for the earlier German botanist Johann Karl Stange (1792-1854). [Nothing unusual in that - we've named one of our violas for our historical rosulate viola pioneer Wilhelm Becker (1874-1928), who also died before I was born.]
Graebner distinguished Stangea from Valeriana morphologically, although it has been in and out of the latter genus subsequently like a fiddler's elbow. But latest cytological studies seem to have placed it firmly as Graebner's separate taxonomic group. But what drew my attention to them was that he identified exactly five species, and although the number described has crept up to seven since, two are synonyms - one earlier, one later - his five remain the ones still recognised with none added since. By coincidence, as well as his wife, Graebner happened to have three daughters and a son - five. So he named each of the stangeas after one:
S. emiliae for Emilia,
S. erikae for Erika,
S. henrici for Heinrich (Henry),
S. paulae for Paula, and
S. wandae for Wanda. Now there's a thing! It's true others have named something for all their immediate family,
Viola evae, V. flos-idae and
V. flos-mariae come to mind. However, not in quantity for an entire genus before or since, I believe. Sadly, poor Emilia's didn't stand the test of time. It was discovered in 1937 that her species had been published as a Valeriana in 1861. That was
V. rhizantha. Hence the accepted epithet of
Stangea rhizantha now, with
S. emiliae as its synonym. You might call her the botanical Cinderella of the Graebners. As if all this wasn't enough, I discovered while looking for further info that the Valerianaceae, including Stangea, 'no longer exists'. Along with the scabious, Linnaea and Morina, they're now all considered to be part of Caprifoliaceae, the honeysuckle family, believe it or not. From weird to weirder.
The Flora of Peru Catalogue lists the lot, but gives all of them as endemic to Peru, which is obviously rubbish. One is not only listed for Argentina, but has been given a different name there, and two others at least are known from Bolivia. There's scarcely anything on the Internet on Stangea, including via Google Images, and I was reaching a bit of a dead-end on our Big Five when it occurred to me I must have researched and entered it as part of my marathon contribution on the Andean flora in the AGS Encyclopaedia. On the nail. Consequently I'm able to draw up a 'sort of' key:
1a) Spreading underground by rhizomes, not tap-rooted: S. paulae & S. wandae (info on the latter from a herbarium specimen illustrated on Internet)
1b) Tap rooted.
2a) Leaves rounded, spathulate: S. henrici
2b) Leaves other.
3a) Leaves oblong to oblong-elliptical: S. erikae
3b) Leaves rugose, ovate: S. rhizantha (syn. S. emiliae)
Well, we're all agreed it's not
S. henrici, and it obviously can't be
S. paulae or
S. wandae either. Which leaves (pun intended) just
S. erikae and
S. rhizantha. And since the foliage ain't oblong or oblong-elliptical, but essentially ovate, it's got to be
S. rhizantha in my book. Or something undescribed? Biogeographically that fits very well, as
S. rhizantha is recorded from various parts of central Peru, and also from Bolivia (where a photo - as attached here - from a paper of it also unearthed [note, not unearthly] looks a dead ringer for the one you've sent for me). So Arequipa in S Peru would fit the bill perfectly.
It's a pity the one here by your correspondent is past flowering. I hope the others he's posted aren't, because these are highly desirable plants from an alpine gardening point of view, as may be judged from the four illustrations I've managed to dredge up from the Internet. They're terrible, being thumb-sized minimal res originally I'm afraid, and the only ones to be found on Google Images. But as you can see from the three different
S. rhizantha plants, the leaf shape is actually quite variable. Despite that, it seems to me the rugose leaf surface looks infallibly diagnostic. But then who am I to pontificate?
Oh, and by the way, the attached
S. rhizantha numbers 2 and 3 are from the Bolivian paper I mentioned above. It's about four Andean plants there that form part of the regular food reserves of the indigenous Indians who live on the high Altiplano. Here's quote from the translated version:
"The chijura is used for human consumption. It is peeled and the raw or cooked rhizome is eaten. In February, the rhizome is sweeter and is prepared together with potato varieties. In times of shortage, the rhizome can serve as a substitute of potatoes" (It's noted as high in iron and potassium.)
So there you are!
I'd like to hope this waffle may have helped in a small way, but imagine it's more likely to have muddied the waters.
Right; end of diversion - back to work.
Cheers,
John "
Stangea henrici
Stangea rhizantha
Stangea rhizantha 2
Stangea rhizantha 3 Thanks to John for his help!
