To me this species is *G. cerastioides* D.Don The plant here is a cultivated specimen and if the records of provenance are faithful (as I think they are) it should be *G. cerastioides* only.
Two species of *Gypsophila* are known in Western Himalaya- *G. cerastioides* and *G. sedifolia* Kurz. *G. sedifolia* (=*G. tibetica*) is quite different with linear leaves, smaller flowers and compact inflorescence (Herb specimen at Kew- http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/getImage.do?imageBarcode=K000725779). It is known from Kashmir, above 2700m *vide* Majumdar (1993). *G. ceratioides* D.Don is widely distributed from Pakistan to Arunachal Pradesh and occurs above 2600m. It is quite variable also and I have seen one population in North Garhwal with petals equal to sepals. David Don while describing the species used specific epithet as ‘ *cerastioides*’ but The Plant List 2013 show ‘*cerastoides*’ which I think is incorrect. DSRawat Pantnagar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr D.S. Rawat Department of Biological Sciences, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology Pantnagar-263 145 Uttarakhand, INDIA *eflorapantnagar* <https://sites.google.com/site/eflorapantnagar/home> displaying wild flora of Pantnagar On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 6:04 PM, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: > Forwarding again for validation please. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: C CHADWELL <[email protected]> > Date: 23 November 2016 at 01:08 > Subject: Gypsophila cerastioides in the New York Botanical Garden > To: "J.M. Garg" <[email protected]> > > > Have noticed recent posts re: Dr Rawat identifying a specimen from > Narkanda as > Gypsophila cerastioides. > > Came across this plant growing in the rockery of the New York Botanical > Garden, the Bronx. > > Do members considered it has been correctly labelled? > > I was on a lecture tour (mostly to North American Rock Garden Society > chapters) which provided > the opportunity for me to spend some time in the herbaria of the New York > Botanical Garden (when > speaking to the Manhattan Chapter) and Ann Arbor, Michigan (when speaking > to the Great Lakes > Chapter, NARGS and gave a seminar at the University about the 'Himalayan > Travels of Walter Koelz' > who with Thakur Rup Chand from Lahoul and their local collectors made > extensive collections in the > NW Himalaya including Kulu Valley, Lahoul & Ladakh in the 1930s; Koelz was > a zoologist engaged by > Russian NIcholas Roerich for the Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley > and pressed a Kohli Memorial > Gold Medal to the Herbarium, see: https://sites.google.com/a/shp > a.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial-gold-medals (scroll > down to 2011). > > Duplicate sets of pressed specimens collected for Roerich went to Ann > Arbor and the New York Botanical Garden, > where they were subsequently identified and labelled by Dr Ralph Stewart > after he retired from being Principal of > the Gordon College, Rawalpindi. Stewart, whilst working in Pakistan > regularly visited the New York Botanic Garden > Herbarium. > > *The best quality set of pressed specimens (with good field notes) I know > of the flora of upper Kulu Valley and* > *Lahoul anywhere in the world are at Ann Arbor, Michigan - far better than > Kew or the Natural History Museum in* > *London. What a shame that the duplicate set of these lies, abandoned > for 80 years "behind-the-scenes" at the* > *Urusvati Institute - no doubt many of the thousands of specimens have > rotted away or become infested by insects.* > *What a waste of such a hard-won resource. I have tried, on 3 occasions, > to gain access to what is left of the * > *specimens to undertake an initial assessment but have not been permitted > entry......* > > *This saddens me. Those is a senior position should have done something > about it decades ago!* > > > > > > > Best Wishes, > > > Chris Chadwell > > > 81 Parlaunt Road > SLOUGH > SL3 8BE > UK > > www.shpa.org.uk > > > > > > > > -- > With regards, > J.M.Garg > > 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1> > > Winner of Wipro-NFS Sparrow Awards 2014 for efloraofindia > <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/award-for-efloraofindia>. > > For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, > please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group > <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/indiantreepix> (largest in the > world- around 2700 members & 2,40,000 messages on 31.3.16) or Efloraofindia > website <https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/> (with a species > database of more than 11,000 species & 2,20,000 images). > > The whole world uses my Image Resource > <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg> of more than a > thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. > (arranged alphabetically & place-wise). You can also use them for free as > per Creative Commons license attached with each image. > > Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of > India'. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
