川西合耳菊 chuan xi he er ju

Senecio solidagineus Handel-Mazzetti, Acta Horti Gothob. 12: 285. 1938; S. paucinervis Dunn var. brachylepis C. Marquand & Airy Shaw.

Herbs, rhizomatous, forming large clumps. Rhizome woody, creeping. Stems 1-3, erect, 30-70 cm tall, simple or few branched in upper part, densely to sparsely arachnoid and ± glabrescent, leafless in lower part at anthesis. Leaves rather crowded; petiole 0.5-2 cm, sparsely arachnoid; blade ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic-oblong, 6-12 × 2-4.5 cm, papery, both surfaces at first sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent, pinnately veined, lateral veins (6-)8-10, arcuate, strongly ascending, prominent abaxially, base cuneate to rounded and often unequal, margin regularly and closely acutely serrate or sometimes subduplicate-serrate, apex acutely shortly acuminate. Upper leaves shortly petiolate, gradually smaller upward. Capitula homogamous, discoid, very numerous, arranged in dense terminal and upper axillary usually narrowly pyramidal compound thyrses, shortly pedunculate or subsessile; peduncles 1-2 mm, densely white tomentose; bracts subulate, small. Involucres narrowly cylindric, ca. 3 × 1-1.5 mm, calyculate; bracts of calyculus few, scalelike, very short; phyllaries 4 or 5, green with darker apices, broadly oblong, ca. 1 mm wide, subleathery, arachnoid, glabrescent, margin scarious, apically obtuse or rounded and shortly ciliate. Ray florets absent. Disk florets 3; corolla pale yellow or cream, ca. 6 mm, with ca. 1.5 mm tube and long-exserted funnelform limb; lobes oblong-lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, apically acute. Anthers ca. 2.5 mm; anther tails ca. 0.5 × as long as antheropodia; appendages oblong-lanceolate; antheropodia elongated, narrow, basally slightly dilated. Style branches ca. 1.5 mm, fringed with short papillae, terminal tuft not distinctive. Achenes ca. 2.5 mm, pubescent. Pappus white or pale straw-colored, 4.5-5 mm. Fl. Jul-Oct.

● Open sunny places; 2900-3900 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.