(Royle) Raizada & Saxena
Description
Gerbera gossypina is a western Himalayan herb recorded by GBIF from India and Pakistan, with only about 10 documented occurrences, reflecting both its restricted range and sparse collection history. It grows on open grassy slopes, sunny banks, forest clearings and rocky hillsides in the temperate zone, generally between about 1500 and 2800 m. The photographed plant was found in Garhwal, India, at Ransi by the Mandakini river at around 1800 m in June, a habitat characteristic of this woolly-leaved species among the herb-rich meadows of the western Himalayan foothills before the monsoon.
The species is a stemless or short-stemmed perennial forming a basal rosette from a thick rootstock. The leaves are oblong to obovate or lyrate, narrowed to a winged petiole, and densely clothed beneath with white to greyish cottony tomentum, the feature that gives the epithet gossypina. The flowering heads are solitary on long, erect, woolly scapes overtopping the rosette. Each radiate capitulum has an outer series of strap-shaped ligulate florets, white to pinkish above and often reddish beneath, surrounding numerous tubular disc florets within an involucre of imbricate bracts. The fruit is a ribbed, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of fine bristles.
Gerbera gossypina (Royle) Raizada & Saxena is one of few representatives of this largely African and Asian genus in the Himalaya and a western-Himalayan element of phytogeographic interest. The very small number of records suggests it is genuinely localised, and its limited known range and scant documentation indicate its conservation status merits assessment, with field survey needed across Garhwal, Himachal and adjoining Pakistan.
Author: (Royle) Raizada & Saxena · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of British India, Polunin & Stainton: Flowers of the Himalaya, taxonomic revisions of Gerbera (Asteraceae)