太白蟹甲草 tai bai xie jia cao

Senecio pilgerianus Diels, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 36(Beibl. 82): 106. 1905; Cacalia pilgeriana (Diels) Y. Ling; Koyamacalia pilgeriana (Diels) H. Robinson & Brettell.

Plants erect, 60-100 cm tall. Rhizomes not dilated, with numerous fibrous roots. Stem solitary, striate, glabrous or sparsely arachnoid in lower part, shortly pubescent in upper part and synflorescence branches, long naked in lower part by anthesis. Lower leaves often withered by anthesis; leaves petiolate; petiole not winged, (8-)10-20 cm; blade abaxially pale green, adaxially green, reniform or broadly reniform, 15-22 × 20-30 cm, papery, palmately medially to deeply lobed; lobes 5-7, obovate or oblong, pinnately lobed, abaxially shortly hairy on veins, adaxially adpressed sparsely shortly pubescent, basally 5-veined, lateral veins upward furcate, base cordate or truncate, margin undulately toothed, teeth mucronulate, apex acute. Upper leaves shortly petiolate, smaller. Uppermost leaves very small, bractlike. Capitula many, usually arranged in crowded branched panicles; rachis and peduncle densely brown shortly hairy, subsessile, with 1 linear-lanceolate bractlet at base. Involucres cylindric, 5-6 × ca. 1.5 mm; phyllaries 3, linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 mm wide, striate, margin narrowly scarious, apically obtuse, puberulent. Florets 3; corolla white or pale yellow, 6-7 mm; tube slender, ca. 3 mm; limb broadly tubular. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally long caudate. Style branches excurved, slender, truncate, papillose. Achenes cylindric, 2-3 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus yellow-brown, 5-6 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep.

● Forests on slopes, shaded wet places, watersides in valleys; 1200-2500 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi.