Dear Professor Jonas Sir,

Yes it seems member of family Urticaceae. May be some Urtica sp.

Regards,

Dr. Arvind Singh

Dear Professor Jonas Sir,

Please check this PDF attachment.

Regards

Dr. Arvind Singh

Dear Dr. Arvind Sir,

many thanks for your response!  

Many leaves arranged across opposite sides of the stem. It has NO stinging hairs. But, I suppose, not all Urtica species are stinging.

Kind regards,

Jonas 

Dear Dr. Arvind Sir,

the paper in your attachment is really important for better understanding of the Andean flora/biota. Many thanks for so valuable sourse.

Regards

Jonas  

Two photographs of the first group (plants with opposite leaves and cordate leaf base), may correspond to some genus of Asteraceae Tr. Eupatorieae, such Ageratina.

Dear José,

it's so nice to hear from you. Yes, it is an intresting/important guess on Ageratina which we certainly cannot ignore.

However: 1) all attached photographs belong to the same plant, including the photo with opposite leaves, cordate base; 2) when held in hands, the plant "did not felt" like an Asteraceae plant - not a scientific "method", I know; 3) leaf-miners (insects) feeding on this plant appeared to be very closely related to Urticaceae feeders but not related to Ageratina feeders (or any other Asteraceae feeders). Sometimes, but not always, stenophagous (monophagous, oligophagous) leaf-miners or other phytophagous insects are an example of coevolution that occured between plants and their specialized pest. 

Many thanks for your response; we much appreciated it. 

Kind regards,

Jonas 

Dear Professor Jonas Sir,

Jose is correct. The plant is Ageratina sp. of family Asteraceae.  It may be Ageratina aromatica (L.) Spach.

Kind Regards,

Dr. Arvind Singh

Dear Professor Jonas Sir,

Please check this PDF attachment.

Regards,

Dr. Arvind Singh

Researchers may upload photos in generative stages so that a reasonable identity and confirmation is possible. There is no logic  in jumping from one plant to another based on similarity in appearance.

Dear Dr. Arvind Sir,

thank you for sending me a PDF of "An Annotated Preliminary Checklist Of The Compositae Of Bolivia". It seems that more full list of the Bolivian Ageratina could be found at  http://www.efloras.org/browse.aspx?flora_id=40&start_taxon_id=100803

However, I still cannot recognize Ageratina, Asteraceae in our photographs and still believe that our plant may belong to Urticaceae. As about Ageratina aromatica, I believe that this species is a North American plant (while our plant is from the Andes).  

By the way, the leaves of our plant are rather soft/gentle and thin (like Urtica's leaves) while plants of the genus Ageratina (as far as I believe) possess more firm and thicker leaves.  

Well, it's really very difficult to identify plants having only photos... I much appreciate your time and kind effort to find right aswers and help other researchers (i.e. us). 

Regards,

Jonas 

Dear Narayanan,

many thanks for your response! Yes, I must admit that situation is really very difficult with no generative (reproductive) stages/organs available. This is why we used ResearchGate to show our photos to the experts (this is probably our last chance to identify at least a family...). No doubt, there are people who have handled this plant and know it well even without generative stages. My students can recognize some plant species from a single leaf when flora is our native (European) and not SO diverse. But this is not the case.

We much appreciate all help from the experts. Thank you! 

Dear Jonas, the person to ask about Andean Urticaceae would be Maximillian Weigend of Bonn University who is also on ResearchGate, but you could also write to him directly! TED

Dear Theodor, it's very kind of you to suggest contact Maximillian Weigend of Bonn University. Already sent an e-mail, I hope he is available. Thank you!

Jonas

...I´d also consider this as a member of Asteraceae from the Ageratina-group - as others have commented before me. There is a range of genera, allied to Eupatorium as I recall, but I am not familiar with the range of genera present. This is certainly not Urtica. Urtica has opposite leaves, but interpertiolar stipules, stinging hairs and largely unbranches stems. Other Urticaceae have alternate leaves and not stinging hairs, but I am not aware of any genus which has similar leaves or habit.

Best

Max.

Dear Sir,

Please find attached herewith image of Ageratina aromatica which looks close  the images posted by you for the identification of this plant species.

Regards & Sincerely,

Dr. Arvind Singh

Dear Jonas,

Although the leaves look all the same, I am quite sure, that you have got two different species in these both photo plates. (1) The plant in the plate below has alternate leaves and clearly visible, brown, translucent (?) stipules. Also the upper right photo in the plate above belongs here. For this species, Urticaceae seems to be possible. But maybe also other families are possible, e.g. Malvaceae??  (2) The plant in the upper left and bottom photos of the plate above has opposite leaves, and no stipules are visible. I agree with others, that this species most likely belongs to Eupatorieae, maybe Chromolaena or some similar genus.

You hardly could get the same leaf-miners in both species, I assume.

Dear Franz,

I think you are absolutely right. Now, thank to you, I realized that we are dealing with two different species; we got leaf-miners solely from an Urticaceae plant/specimens. 

We much appreciated you expert opinion! Thank you so much! 

Moreover, plant (1) has rather thin leaves and rather dense soft hairs on the upper surface of the leaves. Plant (2) certainly has thicker leaves and the upper surface is either glabrous or has only sparse short bristles, maybe along the nerves. Its lower surface seems to have a thin white-grey tomentum.

Anyway, these are totally different species. Did you receive your miners from plant (1)?

Regards

Franz Starlinger

Dear Jonas,

Could plant (1) be Melochia (Malvaceae s.lat.), maybe Melochia lupulina?

Dear Franz, yes, indeed!

Your notes are very correct and precise. By the way, we reared our leaf-miners from the plant no.1 which has rather thin leaves and a rather dense soft hairs on the upper surface of the leaves. Our leaf-miners appeared very closely related to the various Urticaceae feeders which we reared from Pilea, Boehmeria and Phenax (but they aren't closely related to any Asteraceae or Rosaceae feeders).

Many thanks, we also going to thank your for the valuable discussion in an aknowledgment of our paper (in prep.).

Kind regards,

Jonas