LEOPARD'S-BANE

Doronicum pardalianches

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july

status
statusZneophyte		 flower
flower8yellow		 morph
morph8actino		 petals
petalsZMany		 stem
stem8round		 sex
sexZbisexual

14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
Likes to play in the edges of woods or beside streams, here both habitats at once (the yellow flowers only).


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
Grows amongst a plethora of other plants, some of whose leaves are also in the photo.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
This is the only photo your Author was able to take which unambiguously showed the leaves of the Leopard's-bane plants. [Exclude those of other plants in both bottom right and bottom left corners]. Stem leaves deeply chordate with only a narrow space between the lobes, at intervals up the stem. Shallow leaf teeth, crenate-dentate.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The flower corolla is between 3 to 4.5cm across, so quite a narrow range (compared to the 2.5 to 5cm range of Eastern Leopard's-bane which has cordate leaves with a wide gap between the lobes).


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
So the reader can best see the whole plant and nothing but the plant your Author asked a friend to hold it aloft whilst he took a photo of it, because your Authors arms were not long enough to do this single bodiedly. The number of flowers on Leopard's-bane varies from 3 to 8 (this specimen has two branches where the flower[s] have gone missing). [The number of flowers on Eastern Leopards-bane is about ONE!]. The lower leaves may have stalks, one even has two lobes with a narrow land between.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
Leopard's-banes belong to the Asteraceae family which usually have radial rayed florets and central disc florets, as does this.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The rayed florets consist of only 3 flowers each (count the teeth at the tip) rather than the more usual 5 flowers each. Although some rays here have only two teeth and therefore only 2 flowers. The sepal cup is pudding-bowl in shape with a sharply tapering stem. The sepal teeth are long but very narrow and somewhat variable in length. Note the short glandular hairs on both left-hand stem and flower stalk.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The sepal cup with long sepal teeth. Flower stalk has short glandular hairs.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The yellow rayed corolla with golden-yellow disc florets.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The central disc 5-lobed florets with concolorous central style with stigma atop.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
As-yet unopened sepal teeth encapsulate the still growing rolled-up ray florets. The stem here has both short glandular hairs and longer ordinary hairs, plus another branched flower bud with developing leaf beneath. The short glandular hairs and longer ordinary hairs even occupy the sepal teeth.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
Lower leaf is auricular (wrapped around the stem) with little or no space between the nearest ends. It has a very narrow central section before widening into an end-lobe. These kinds of leaves are less common than the one above with no central restriction. The leaf teeth are variably crenate to dentate and quite irregular.


14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
These next two photos are a side-views and end-views of the SAME leaf.

This leaf is deceptive; it looks like it is on a long stalk, but that is a part of this greatly extended leaf. The auricles wrap around the stem at the bottom and have a very narrow stem-like restriction before opening out again as a large end-lobe (just as the leaf shown above does, but much more extreme).



14th May 2019, woods, Newtown, Ravenglass, Cumbria Photo: © RWD
The same leaf as above, but showing the nearly gapless auricles, a very long restricted middle-section extension before abruptly widening into the end lobe at the top.

The longer non-glandular hairs outnumber the shorter glandular hairs here confirming the identification as Leopard's-bane.

Not to be semantically confused with : Leopardplants such as Leopardplant (Ligularia dentata) [a plant with similar name]

Easily confused with : the two hybrids below:

Hybridizes with :

  • Plantain-leaved Leopard's-bane (Doronicum plantagineaum) to produce Doronicum × willdenowii which is slightly taller at 1m (rather than 80cm), the flowers are larger at between 4.5cm to 8cm across (as opposed to 3 to 4.5cm across for Leopard's-bane). This is easily mistaken for Plantain-leaved Leopard's-bane (Doronicum plantagineaum).
  • Plantain-leaved Leopard's-bane (Doronicum plantagineaum) and Eastern Leopard's-bane (Doronicum columnae) to produce Doronicum × excelsum which is a triple hybrid and is slightly taller at 1m (rather than 80cm). This too is easily mistaken for Plantain-leaved Leopard's-bane (Doronicum plantagineaum).
Leopard's-bane is the most frequently occurring Leopard's-bane. It grows near streams or in the partial shade of the edge of woods, shying full sun all day.

No relation to : Leopards () [animals which can eat you].

  Doronicum pardalianches  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Asteraceae  

Distribution
family8Daisy & Dandelion family8Asteraceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Doronicum
Doronicum
(Leopard's-Banes)

LEOPARD'S-BANE

Doronicum pardalianches

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]