Petasites albus

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Petasites albus a1.jpg

| genus = Petasites

| species = albus

| authority = (L.) Gaertn.

}}

Petasites albus, the white butterbur,{{BSBI 2007 |accessdate=2014-10-17 }} is a flowering plant species in the family Asteraceae. It is native to central Europe and the Caucasus.

Description

Petasites albus is a perennial rhizomatous herb, with large suborbicular (almost round) leaves covered with lax cottony hairs. The flower heads are compact racemes of composite flowers or capitula with white ligules. They are dioecious, the male plants often more common than the females, as in the British range.

{{cite book|last=Stace|first=C. A.|authorlink = Stace, C. A.|year=2010|title=New Flora of the British Isles|edition=Third|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location = Cambridge, U.K.| isbn=9780521707725}}{{rp|771}}

Distribution

The native range of Petasites albus is the mountains of central Europe and the Caucasus. It was first recorded in Sweden in Skåne in 1737 (Nordstedt 1920).

{{cite web|url=http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/di/astera/petas/petaalbv.jpg|first=Arne|last=Anderberg|title=Den Virtuella Floran: Petasites albus (L.) Gaertn.|publisher=Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Stockholm}} In the British Isles it is a neophyte, introduced by the 17th century and naturalized in Yorkshire by 1843, but now predominantly distributed in North-east Scotland.{{cite web |title= Online Atlas of the British Flora. Petasites albus (White Butterbur) |url=https://www.brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/index.php?q=plant/petasites-albus |publisher=Biological Records Centre |location=Wallingford, Oxfordshire, U.K. }}

Habitat

It prefers damp soils in deciduous forests, mountain pastures, springs and streamsides, roadside verges and other areas of rough ground.

File:White butterbur.jpg

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q997242}}

albus

Category:Flora of the Caucasus

{{Senecioneae-stub}}