Stellera is a genus of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, with a single species Stellera chamaejasme[1] found in mountainous regions of Central Asia, China, Siberia and South Asia. S. chamaejasme is a herbaceous perennial plant with heads of white, pink or yellow flowers, grown as an ornamental plant in rock gardens and alpine houses, but considered a weed playing a rôle in the desertification of grasslands in parts of its native range. Like many others of its family, it is a poisonous plant with medicinal and other useful properties.
Two common names recorded for the plant in Mongolian are одои далан туруу (odoi dalan turuu) and чонын Чолбодос (choniin cholbodos) - incomplete translation: choniin "of the wolf" + cholbodos [=?, possibly "poison"]. A common name for the plant in Tibetan is rejag.[3]
Stellera chamaejasme is a herbaceous perennial. Unbranched stems, 20–30 cm tall, emerge in a cluster from an underground rhizome. Narrow, overlapping leaves are borne along the stems. Individual leaves are narrow and pointed, up to 2 cm long. The flowers are grouped into rounded tightly packed terminal heads. Flowers lack petals, instead having petaloid sepals forming a tube up to 1.5 cm long with usually five (but possibly four or six) short lobes. The flower colour varies from shades of pink and white to yellow. There are twice as many stamens as calyx lobes, in two series. The ovary has a single chamber (locule). The fruit is a dry drupe, enclosed by the remains of the calyx.[4][5]
The genus Stellera was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.[2] He recognized two species: Stellera passerina (now placed in the genus Thymelaea as T. passerina) and Stellera chamaejasme.[6] The generic name Stellera (not to be confused with the entirely unrelated Stellaria) commemorates Georg Wilhelm Steller (Stöller), while the specific epithet chamaejasme is a rendering into botanical Latin orthography of the Greek χαμαί khamai "(down) on the ground" and ιασμε iasme "jasmine". The name in its entirety thus means "Steller's plant that resembles a kind of jasmine (that creeps) on the ground". The flower of Stellera chamaejasme is fragrant like that of jasmine and also has a wine-red exterior, like that of certain species of jasmine, e.g. common jasmine Jasminum officinale and the Chinese species Jasminum polyanthum. Unlike jasmine, however, Stellera is a herbaceous plant, not a woody one, and its stems do not twine.
Many species names were later created in the genus, but all are now usually considered synonyms of other species, including S. chamaejasme,[1] although the Flora of China states that there are 10 to 12 species.[5]Studies in 2002 and 2009, based on chloroplast DNA, placed Stellera in a small group of related genera, either as sister to Wikstroemia or embedded within it; however for most genera only one species was included.[7][8]
Stellera chamaejasme is native to northern and western China, Tibet, the Himalayas (Nepal, Bhutan), the state of Uttar Pradesh in north India, Russia and Mongolia.[4][9] In China, it is found on sunny dry slopes and sandy places between 2600 and 4200 m.[9]