Neogaya is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae.[2] It contains just one species, Neogaya simplex,[1] and can be found in Europe, the Alps, the western and southern Carpathians, former Yugoslavia, Belarus. European Russia, Kazakhstan, China, and western Siberia.
Description
It is a perennial,[3][4] It grows between 5–30 cm (2–12 in) tall.[3][4][5] It has glabrous (smooth),[4][5] straight, erect stems, that are grooved or ribbed.[3][4][5] It has basal leaves,[3][4] which have a long petiole (leaf stalk).[3] They are linear-lanceolate,[3] or ovate shaped.[4] They are dark green with a purplish margin,[6] and measure 3–6 cm long and 2–5 cm wide.[3]
In Europe, it blooms from June to August.[3] They are 2–5 cm (1–2 in) in diameter,[3][4] in compound umbels,[4] or 8-20 rounds of 3 lobed petals.[3] They are in shades of white or pinkish.[3][4] After flowering it produces a seed capsule or 'fruit', which like other members of the Apiaceae family, is polachenarium, a dry schizocarpic fruit consisting of monocarps separating from a longitudinal central axis (columella or carpophore), often remaining attached to the axis at maturity.[7] It is about 3–5 mm long,[3] and 3.2-3.6 mm wide,[5] with dark brownish lilca stripes.[6] It is broadly ellipsoidal,[3] or prolonged ellipsoid,[5] with a dorsal side that is convex with five winged ridges.[5]
Taxonomy
The genus name of Neogaya is in honour of Jaques Étienne Gay (1786–1864), a Swiss-French botanist, civil servant, collector and taxonomist.[8] The Latin specific epithet of simplex means simple or unbranched from simplicissimus.[9]
Both the genus and the species were first described and published in Pl. Vasc. Gen. Vol.1 on page 104 in 1837.[1]
This species has rather large synonymy due to its complicated generic delimitation in Asiatic high mountainous Apiaceae family with similar lifeforms (see
Pimenov, 1982; Lavrova et al., 1987; Pimenov & Kljuykov, 2001). The species was re-established as the genus Neogaya Meisn. during the revision of Middle Asiatic taxa of the Apiaceae (Pimenov, 1982, 1983).[10]
It has the common name of 'Small Alpine Lovage',[14] or 'Alpine lovage' with the most commonly known synonym of Ligusticum mutellinoides Vill.[4]
In Slovakia, it is known as 'simple dill'.[3]
It grows on Alpine meadows,[4] on rocky or stony areas, stony meadows,[5] or grassy areas, on overgrown rocks,[5] and rubble or screes,[5] at the subalpine and alpine regions.[3]
^Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN978-1845337315.
^Pimenov, M.G.; Kljuykov, E.V. (2005). "Additional Notes on the Genus Lomatocarpa Pim. (Apiaceae – Apioideae) and Related Taxa of High Asia". Rheeda. 15 (2): 113–118.
Pimenov M.G., 1982. Two new genera of Umbelliferae from the group of Ligusticeae. Bjull. Moskovsk. Obsc. Isp. Prir. Otd. Biol. 87(1): 111–117. (in Russian, with Latin diagnoses).
