Moschatel, Townhall Clock

The species has not yet been recorded from Pakistan, but is to be expected from parts of Azad Kashmir adjoining the Pir Panjal range. Clarke on the basis of the number of cauline leaves (1) and occasionally 6-merous flowers, considers the Himalayan plant to be of varietal rank (i.e. var. inodora). Apart from the non-odorous flowers, the other two characters are variable in the specimens examined.

A glabrous herb with a well developed rhizome, creeping with fibrous roots and apically with white, ± fleshy and overlapping scales. Leaves dark green above, pale below. Petiole of radical leaves 4.5-11.0 cm long. Cauline leaves usually solitary. Leaflets 3-segmented; segments 3-6 x 2-6.5 cm, obtusely lobed. Flowering stem unbranched, 15-48 mm long, slender. Flowering heads 5-7 mm broad, globose, bearing a cluster of 4 lateral and 1 terminal flower. Calyx ovate, c. 1 mm long, half cleft; lobes 3-4 in number, obtuse, less than 1 mm long. Corolla rotate, greenish, 4-5-lobed; lobes suborbicular to oblong, ± 2.6 mm long, nervose. Stamens as many as the corolla lobes and alternating with them; each filament bearing half an anther; anthers yellow, less than 1 mm long. Drupe ± 5.5 mm broad, subglobose. Seeds 4-5, oblong, flat, 3-3.5 mm long, glabrous.

Distribution: Widely distributed in Europe, N. & C. Asia, N. America.

Fl. Per.: July.