植夫蒲儿根 zhi fu pu er gen

Herbs, stoloniferous, with leafy stems. Rhizomes 4-5 mm in diam. Stems solitary, erect, 30-60 cm tall, simple, sparsely white pubescent. Radical leaves withered by anthesis, petiolate; blade adaxially green, reniform, 3-6 × ca. 6 cm, abaxially white arachnoid or pilose, ciliate on margin, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pilose, palmately 5-veined, base deeply cordate, 7-9-palmatilobed nearly to middle; lobes oblong, 1.5-2.5 × 1-2 cm, margin entire or sometimes 2- or 3-denticulate. Median and upper stem leaves similar to lower leaves, but smaller; petioles of lower leaves 3-7 cm, basally expanded, sparsely shortly pubescent. Uppermost leaves small, bractlike, 3-5-lobed or entire, shortly petiolate or subsessile. Capitula radiate, usually 4 or 5 arranged in terminal corymb, rarely solitary, 2-2.5 cm in diam.; peduncles 1.5-2 cm, slender, sparsely shortly pubescent with 1 bract. Involucres campanulate, 4-5 × 5-7 mm, not calyculate; phyllaries ca. 15, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm wide, glabrous, 1-3-veined, margin white ciliate and narrowly scarious, apically acuminate. Ray florets ca. 13; corolla tube ca. 2 mm; lamina yellow, oblong or linear-oblong, 8-10 × 1-1.5 mm. Disk florets many, yellow, with 1.5-2 mm tube and campanulate limb; lobes ovate-lanceolate, apically puberulent. Anthers oblong, ca. 1.5 mm, basally obtuse. Style branches recurved. Achenes cylindric, ca. 1 mm, glabrous, papillate. Pappus white, ca. 3 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

● Grassy slopes, forest margins, in bushes, canal sides in ravines; 2300-3200 m. Sichuan (Lixian, Maowen).

Sinosenecio fangianus differs from S. sungpanensis by the leaves 7-9-palmatilobed to the middle, the lobes oblong, and the phyllaries not purplish on upper margin.