On 24/11/2019 15:36, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 24/11/19 12:06, Another John wrote:
I thought I'd said goodbye to the "mystery plants", and reported so last
week.

I now find that my wife had taken a couple of shoots off the plant that
you see on the lawn in Picture 3 in that album, and put them in water.

One of them immediately put out roots as though there were no tomorrow
(which there wasn't, for it, actually), and that is now potted up in the
porch.

The other put out flowers!Â* Picture 4 in the album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yhLaxss2tJX2QNGA6

That's a pretty good photo of a Guizotia flower.

Now we only have to agree which Guizotia species it is. It's much too
hairy to be Guizotia abyssinica. It's reported to not be sensibly
sticky, which casts some question of an identification as Guizotia
scabra, but glandular hairy plants aren't always reliably sensibly
sticky - I've occassionally found a sticky groundsel that wasn't, and I
find sticky mouseear rarely sensibly sticky, even when you can see the
glandular hairs with a handlens. Guizotia schimperi as been split from
Guizotia scabra, but doesn't seem to have been taken on board by British
field botanists. All British records of Guizotia scabra may be Guizotia
schimperi.

It's not easy to get my hands on a description of the differences, but I
read that Guizotia scabra sensu strictu has 8-16 ray and over 50 disc
florets in head, and Guizotia schimperi fewer, which would make this
Guizotia schimperi aka Guizotia scabra var. schimperi.

Guizotia schimperi is said to be the wild progenitor of Guizotia abyssinica.

You could try looking at the stems with a magnifying class or try for a
close up photograph, but I think that it has to be this.

This really _is_ the end of the saga!
I think.

John


--
SRH