Ligularia przewalskii (Maxim.) Diels, also called Przewalski's golden ray is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 plants in the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Ligularia

Ligularia

Ligularia, Leopard Plant, is a genus of "Old World" perennial plants or herbs resembling groundsel of the family Asteraceae. Ligularias are rather tall perennial herbaceous plants occurring mostly in damp places in Europe, Asia and Africa. Some of them are cultivated as ornamentals.-Some...

 and the family Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

, native to damp places in Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 and Northern China

North China

thumb|250px|Northern [[People's Republic of China]] region.Northern China or North China is a geographical region of China. The heartland of North China is the North China Plain....

 and named after Nikolai Przhevalsky

Nikolai Przhevalsky

Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky and Prjevalsky, ; —), was a Russian geographer of Polish background and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he travelled through regions unknown to the west, such as northern Tibet, modern Qinghai and...

. It used to be called Senecio

Senecio

Senecio is a genus of the daisy family that includes ragworts and groundsels. The flower heads are normally rayed, completely yellow, and the heads are borne in branched clusters...

 przewalskii Maxim. Przewalski's Ligularia is a popular ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

 grown for its large, deeply cut foliage and its tall spike like inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

with bright yellow flowers blooming from July to August.

In China, Ligularia przewalskii is known as a medicinal plant. Their roots contain thirteen compounds, some with antibacterial activity.

Cultivation

Plants grow best under cool, moist conditions. They resent hot sunny locations were they wilt extensively. They are propagated from seed or by cutting up the crowns.

External links

• Tropicos.org of Missouri Botanical Garden: Ligularia przewalskii (Maxim.) Diels