Adenostyles alpina

Adenostyles alpina (synonym Adenostyles glabra), the smooth adenostyles or alpine adenostyles, is a perennial herb in the family Asteraceae native to the mountains of central and southern Europe, occurring in the Alps, Pyrenees, Apennines, and the Balkan ranges, where it grows in damp shaded subalpine woodland, ravine forests, tall-herb meadows, and stream margins on calcareous substrates at 800-2200 m. The plant produces a stout creeping rhizome and erect, somewhat hairy or glabrate, sparsely branched stems 30-100 cm tall. The basal leaves are large, long-petioled, ovate-cordate to reniform, 10-25 cm across, with bluntly toothed or shallowly lobed margins, dull green on both surfaces and almost glabrous beneath (distinguishing the species from the densely white-felted leaves of A. alliariae). Stem leaves are reduced and more triangular with auriculate sessile bases clasping the stem. The inflorescence is a flat-topped corymb of many small narrow heads, each 6-8 mm long, with 3-6 pale lilac, pink, or whitish tubular disc florets only (no ray florets), surrounded by a cylindrical involucre of a single row of green-purple bracts. Flowering occurs in midsummer. The achenes are small, ribbed, and bear a tuft of white pappus bristles.