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Saussurea
Also called Snow lotus, Vascular Plants, Tracheophytes
Saussurea is a genus of about 300 perennial herbs in the daisy family, mostly from cold alpine and arctic areas, including the snow lotus. The key to growing the high-altitude species is cool conditions, a long winter rest, and very sharp drainage.
Saussurea is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae, native to cool temperate and arctic regions of East Asia, Europe, and North America, with the highest diversity in alpine habitats in the Himalayas and East Asia. Common names include saw-wort and snow lotus, the latter used for a number of high altitude species in East Asia.
They are perennial herbaceous plants, ranging in height from dwarf alpine species 5–10 cm (2–4 in) tall, to tall thistle-like plants up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall. The leaves are produced in a dense basal rosette, and then spirally up the flowering stem. The flowers form in a dense head of small capitula, often surrounded by dense white to purple woolly hairs; the individual florets are also white to purple.
A number of the high alpine Himalayan species are grown as ornamental plants for their decorative dense woolly flowerheads; they are among the most challenging plants to grow, being adapted to harsh climates from 3,000 to 5,000 m (9,800 to 16,400 ft) altitude, demanding cool temperatures, a very long (up to 8–10 months) winter rest period, and very good soil drainage in humus-rich gravel soils.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Saussurea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
