''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' (synonym ''Senecio adnivalis'') is one of the giant groundsels of the mountains of

Eastern Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historica ...

. ''D. adnivalis'' grows on the

Rwenzori Mountains The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches , and the range ...

and on the Virunga Mountains in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

and the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Description

''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' attains heights of tall, trunk can be 40 centimeters diameter and the

pith Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, which in some cases can store starch. In eudicotyledons, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocotyledons, it ext ...

diameter. The stems have 25 to 60 leaves densely packed in a rosette shape at the top. Old leaves are persistent, withered leaf-bases covering the stalk for 1 to 3 meters below the leaf-rosettes.

Leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

surfaces are elliptic to heart shaped and can be long and wide, hairy on the top and not hairy on the bottom. Branched clusters of flowers to tall and wide. The droopy

flower head A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

s have 9 to 20 ray florets, 16 millimeters long or no ray florets at all and 90 to 250 disc florets.

Distribution

The Congo Basin is very wet; humid air is trapped by the mountains and rain falls on most days even in the drier months. Above 2500 meters (8,200 ft) clouds can persist for several days making the Rwenzori and the Virunga a wetter environment than the other East African mountains. ''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' lives at altitudes of 3,000 to 3,800 meters (9,800 to 12,000 feet) on the

with another giant groundsel, '' Dendrosenecio johnstonii''. ''D. adnivalis'' more common on the wetter soils. On the Virunga Mountains groves of ''Senecio stanleyi'' (''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'') grow after the tree heaths (''

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * ''Erica'' (spider), a jumping spider genus * E ...

'' sp.) in clearings along with '' Lobelia wollastonii'' until the altitude of 4,300 meters (14,000 feet) when vegetation becomes sparse.

Synonyms

The herbarium has all of the ''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' specimens filed under ''Senecio johnstonii'' and indeed, one is probably a variety or subspecies of the other that adapted to live closer to water and on damper ground. A synonym for ''Senecio stanleyi'' is ''Dendrosenecio adnivalis'' (Stapf) E.B.Knox var. ''petiolatus'' (Hedberg) E.B.Knox; for this article, ''Senecio stanleyi'' was considered to be a synonym of ''Dendrosenecio adnivalis''.

References

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5256840 adnivalis Endemic flora of Kenya Rwenzori Mountains Virunga Mountains Afromontane flora