向日垂头菊 xiang ri chui tou ju

Senecio helianthus Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 39: 286. 1892.

Plants grayish green, mealy. Stem solitary, erect, 7-56 cm tall, 2-4 mm in diam. at base, glabrous. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 1-12 cm, slender, glabrous, base long sheathed; leaf blade ovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, 3-15 × 1.2-9 cm, glabrous, pinnately veined, base cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse. Stem leaves 6-8, sessile, erect, adnate, tubular-amplexicaul. Capitulum solitary, nodding; leaflike bracts several, ovate-lanceolate or broadly elliptic, 1.5-2.5 × to 1.5 cm, grayish green, glabrous, margin entire, usually surrounding capitulum. Involucre hemispheric, 1-1.5 × 2-2.5 cm, outside glabrous, grayish green or blackish gray when dry; phyllaries 12-20, in 2 rows, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-7 mm wide, apex acute or acuminate. Ray florets yellow; lamina narrowly lanceolate, to 3.5 cm × 3-4 mm, apex acuminate or caudate, 3-lobed; tube ca. 2 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 6-7 mm; tube ca. 1 mm; limb cylindric. Achenes pale brown, oblong, 3-5 mm, ribbed. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov.

● Forest understories, scrub, grassy slopes, alpine meadows; 2800-4500 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.