无毛蟹甲草 wu mao xie jia cao

Rhizomes procumbent, with fascicled fibrous roots. Stem solitary, erect, ca. 50 cm tall, 4-6 mm in diam. at base, angulate, subglabrous except on synflorescence branches, paniculate synflorescences branched above, upward subcurved. Basal leaves withered and fallen at anthesis. Lower stem leaf petioles 4-6.5 cm, not winged, hispidulous, rather expanded at base but without auricle; leaf blade triangular-hastate, 7.5-15 × 10-18 cm, base broadly cordate or subcordate, shortly decurrent, margin with fine or stout teeth, teeth triangular and mucronulate, apex long acute or acuminate; lateral lobes furcate, acute or 2-lobulate; basal lobes longer, narrowly triangular. Upper stem leaves similar, gradually smaller. Uppermost leaves shortly petiolate, sometimes ovate or narrowly ovate, basally 3-veined, palmately divaricate, connected before margins, lateral and reticulate veins slightly prominent on both surfaces, base rounded. Capitula numerous, terminal and in upper leaf axils, pyramidal paniculate; synflorescence branches spreading, sparsely or densely yellow pubescent; peduncles 1.5-2 mm, hispidulous, basally with linear-lanceolate bractlets; bractlets 3-7 mm, rarely to 15 mm or shorter than 3 mm. Involucres cylindric, 9-11 × 2-3 mm; phyllaries 5, linear-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm wide, outside pubescent, margin narrowly scarious, apically acute. Florets 5 or 6; corolla yellow, often exceeding involucre, with 3.5-4.5 mm tube and narrowly campanulate limb; lobes lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, apically sparsely puberulent. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally caudate. Style branches excurved, truncate, papillose. Achenes cylindric, ca. 4 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus white, equaling corolla lobes. Fl. Jul, fr. Sep.

● Forests, thickets on slopes, meadows, riversides; 800-2300 m. Chongqing (Nanchuan), Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi.

This species was originally described as Cacalia subglabra C. C. Chang (Parasenecio subglaber (C. C. Chang) Y. L. Chen), but Y. S. Chen (loc. cit.) demonstrated that the holotype of C. subglabra, Z. S. Chung 83429 (IBSC), as designated in the protologue, presumably in error, is in fact a specimen of the species currently known as Ligularia stenocephala, into the synonymy of which the names C. subglabra and P. subglaber must therefore be placed. Y. S. Chen published the new name P. albus for the species originally described as C. subglabra, designating as the holotype Z. S. Chung 83438 (IBSC), which was annotated as "Cacalia subglabra Chang" by C. C. Chang and, as it agrees perfectly with the description and illustration in his protologue, was evidently his intended holotype.