昆明蟹甲草 kun ming xie jia cao

Cacalia tripteris Handel-Mazzetti, Acta Horti Gothob. 12: 300. 1938.

Plants (30-)50-90 cm tall. Rhizomes short, stout, 1.5-2 cm in diam., with numerous brown fibrous roots. Stem solitary, green or base purple-tinged striate, stiff, glabrous. Lower leaves small or withered by anthesis; other leaves usually crowded at middle, gradually smaller. Petiole ca. 1/2 as long as blade, unequally shortly winged, without auricle at base; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, broadly ovate, 7-10 × 6-11 cm, both surfaces glabrous, palmately veined, veins distinctly raised adaxially, base slightly cordate, truncate, or broadly cuneate, palmately 3-7-divided, lobes broadly obovate-spatulate, apex obtuse or slightly acute, terminal lobe ± lobed, lateral lobes 2-lobed or divided, margin sparsely toothed or mucronulate only, thicker in texture. Capitula many, terminal or arranged in upper leaf axils in a branched narrow panicle; branches obliquely ascending; capitula upward arranged in racemes, pendulous, glabrous or sparsely shortly pubescent; bracts of lower part similar to leaves, but smaller; upper bracts linear or linear-lanceolate, 5-6 mm; peduncles (2-)3-5 mm, slender, with 1-3 subulate-linear bractlets, pendulous. Involucres cylindric, 8-9 × 1.5-2 mm; phyllaries 3, pale brown, linear-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 7-9 × 1-1.5 mm, herbaceous, glabrous, margin narrowly or broadly scarious, apically obtuse or slightly acute, puberulent. Florets 3 or 4; corolla yellow, 6-7 mm; limb broadly tubular; lobes lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally long caudate. Style branches truncate, papillose. Achenes yellow-brown, cylindric, 4-5 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus white, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Oct.

● Lax forests or grasslands on slopes; 1900-3100 m. Yunnan.

Parasenecio tripteris is similar to P. palmatisectus but differs in the leaf thickness, the type of division of leaves, and the numbers of phyllaries and florets.