Nathaliella is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Scrophulariaceae. The only species is Nathaliella alaica.[1] It is also within Tribe Scrophularieae.
It is native to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang (in China). It is found on sunny, stone filled slopes, at elevations of 1500- above sea level.[2]
It has thick roots. The caudex (plant stem) is covered in the remains of old leaves and white bristly hairs.It has a petiole (leaf stalk) that is about as twice as long as the leaf blade. The leaf blade is broadly ovate,[2] lanceolate or ovoid in shape.[3] They are about 1-1.5 cm wide and 0.5-1 cm long, with an entire (or smooth) margin.[2] It flowers in China in June.[2] The flowers are sessile (without stalk) or pedicellate (stalk of a flower),[3] which is short.[2] The Calyx is 4-5 mm long,[2] with 5 deeply lobes.[3] The corolla is about 1.5 cm long, and purple-red,[2] or pink-violet.[3] The limb is indistinctly 2 lipped.[3] The tube is narrowly cylindrical.[2] [3] The throat is slightly dilated.[2] It has 4 stamens, which are attached at the base of corolla tube.[2] [3] The filaments (stamen stalks) are filiform (thread-like) and glabrous (smooth).[2] The anthers are divergent.[3] In August, (in China) it produces a fruit or seed capsule,[2] which is ovoid,[2] [3] and glabrous. It is about 5-10 mm long and 3-4 mm wide.[2] Inside are numerous seeds.[3]
The genus name of Nathaliella is in honour of Nathalie A. Desjatova-Shostenko (1889–1969), a Russian-French botanist noted for identifying at least 70 species of plants, many in the genus Thymus.[4] The Latin specific epithet of alaica refers to coming from the Alai Mountains between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.[5]
Both species and genus were first described and published in Bot. Zhurn. S.S.S.R. Vol.17 on page 327 in 1932.[1] [6]
In 2011, a postage stamp series was issued in Uzbekistan with a set of illustrations of flowers, including Nathaliella alaica .[7]