Cushion Plant List

[alanelliott]

Have to admit cushions dont really do anything for me horticulturally but I'm coming round to them.

So anyone interested in cushion plants this site has a comprehensive list and a multi-access key to the 8 different types of cushion to working out which type of cushion your favourite plant is.

There are also useful links on the species list to literature and representaive specimens.

http://www.cushionplants.eu/

Been working on Androsace data recently and think I've resolved to growing some because of their evolutionary coolness.

From a Journal of Biogeography paper (sadly behind a paywall so not readily accessible). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12135/abstract

Short-lived ancestors of Androsace first facilitated the expansion of the genus' range from Asia to Europe, while cushions, which appeared independently in Asia and Europe, enhanced species diversification in alpine regions. One long-distance dispersal event from Europe to North America led to the diversification of the nested genus Douglasia.

Amazing

[Maggi Young]

There is another paper  on cushion plants , related to  the website Alan mentions :

Alp Botany
DOI 10.1007/s00035-014-0127-x

1914–2014: A revised worldwide catalogue of cushion plants
100 years after Hauri and Schroeter

Authors: Serge Aubert • Florian Boucher • Sebastien Lavergne •
Julien Renaud • Philippe Choler

I believe it is acceptable to quote the Abstract  of that paper -

Abstract:
Cushion plants have long fascinated botanists
for their ability to cope with extreme environments in most
mountains and arctic regions of the world. One century
ago, a first worldwide catalogue of species forming cushions
was published by Hauri and Schro¨ter (Bot Jahrb Syst
Pflanzengesch Pflanzengeogr 50:618–656, 1914). Here, we
defined a simplified typology of cushion plants and updated
the worldwide catalogue of cushion species, along with
information on their geographic distribution. This compilation
was based on available information in floras and
catalogues but also in efloras and virtual encyclopedias,
which were screened using automated database queries.
We established a list of 1,309 cushion-forming species
distributed in 272 genera and 63 families of angiosperms.
Compact cushions are represented by 678 species, among
which 587 species exhibit a hemispherical shape, and 91
species exhibit a flat to mat shape. We found 398 species
forming non-compact hemispherical cushions. The list of
cushion species has significantly increased since Hauri and
Shroeter, due to the description of new species, updated
regional inventories, and improved access to electronic
databases. Uncertainties in the delineation of the cushion
life form are discussed, notably for non-compact growth
forms. A website has been launched to display the catalogue
and enable a collaborative improvement of the
database (http://www.cushionplants.eu/). The distribution
of the species is presented on the basis of the world geographical
scheme for recording plant distributions and
global biodiversity information facility data. This catalogue
will serve as a reference database for further analyses
on the biogeography and evolutionary history of cushion
plants and arctico-alpine biotas.

Serge Aubert and the  team of the Lautaret  Alpine Botanical Garden mention in a recent email t that

"...... illustrations are missing and I therefore ask if you have are interested to participate with identified images from the wild or from your garden. The credit of course for the images will be acknowledged.
Finally, we have developed new websites (in French):
- updated and "classic" website, including a section AABG (within the section "Botanique")
- Facebook official page, an illustrated and simplified version which includes a blog/news + galeries of images showing the different activities of the garden
- Galeries of images on Flickr (25.000 pictures)
- digitalised vegetation maps of the Alps and history of the Ecology laboratory of Pr Ozenda, former director of the Lautaret garden "

[alanelliott]

Aye I went through that paper the "list" is on site and far more interesting with the associated data.