Authors: L.
Whole plant red-brown hairy. Leaves rounded to kidney-shaped to 12cm wide, lobed to one quarter of the radius, each lobe irregularly toothed, on stalks 7-17cm in length. Flowers about 1cm long, purple-violet, nodding, in umbels of five to twenty on stems 20-35cm in height, late spring, summer. Southeastern and southern central Europe to central Russia and Japan, in mountain woods and damp places. A very variable species in matters of hairiness, leaf lobing, overall size, etc. The following names are sometimes met with: C.m. var. congesta, syn. C. sachalinensis and C. coreana var. congesta which has the leaves more densely pubescent and cordate, and dense floral umbels; Japan. Var. hirsuta (syn. forma villoso-hirsuta and C. hirsuta) has deep leaf lobes which are deeply toothed. Var. jezoana has the leaves loosely long pubescent and palmately lobed, each lobe again lobed and toothed, and flowers to 1.7cm wide, Japan. Var. pekinensis has the leaves deeply lobed, each lobe pinnately divided; China. Var. pubens (syn. C. pubens), has the leaves deeply and broadly lobed, the lobes coarsely toothed. Var. yezoensis, syn. C. sachalinensis, and C. coreana var. yezoensis has densely pubescent leaves which bear larger and more sharply pointed teeth than usual. Japan. In addition, white-flowered or 'Alba' and large-flowered 'Grandiflora' cultivars are offered. Other names which cover the same sort of small variations on a theme are: C. sibirica, transylvanica and turkestanica. [Pl.120]
