岩穴藤菊 yan xue teng ju

Vernonia spelaeicola Vaniot, Bull. Acad. Int. Géogr. Bot. 12: 123. 1903; Senecio spelaeicola (Vaniot) Gagnepain; S. yalungensis Handel-Mazzetti.

Subshrubs or herbs, large, scandent, to 5 m or more. Stems becoming woody, at first white arachnoid-tomentose, ± glabrescent. Petiole 3-6 mm, stout, densely tomentose; leaf blade abaxially yellowish white, adaxially green, ovate or broadly ovate, 4-11 × 4-8 cm, papery, abaxially densely arachnoid, adaxially at first sparsely arachnoid and glabrescent, palmately 3-5-veined from base, base cordate, margin repand-denticulate, apex acute-acuminate-apiculate. Upper and synflorescence leaves smaller, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, basally cordate to cuneate. Capitula discoid, numerous, arranged in 7-10-headed terminal and upper axillary compound corymbs; synflorescence branches divaricate, densely tomentose; peduncles short, 3-5 mm, densely tomentose, usually basally bracteate; bract linear. Involucres cylindric, 6-7 × 2.5-4 mm, calyculate; bracts of calyculus 6-8, linear, unequal, densely tomentose; phyllaries 8, linear-oblong, 1.5-2 mm, herbaceous, densely tomentose, margin broadly scarious, densely tomentose, apically acutely triangular and puberulent. Ray florets absent. Disk florets 15-17; corolla white, 9-10 mm, with ca. 4 mm tube and narrowly funnelform limb; lobes oblong-lanceolate, ca. 1.8 mm, apically acute. Anthers ca. 4 mm; anther tails slightly shorter than to ca. 2 × as long as antheropodia; appendages oblong-lanceolate, antheropodia somewhat dilated toward base. Style branches 3-3.5 mm, fringed with rather long papillae, terminal tuft stout, distinct, much exceeding laterals. Achenes cylindric, ca. 5 mm, glabrous. Pappus white or dirty white, ca. 9 mm. Fl. Nov-Dec.

● Climbing on trees and shrubs in mixed forests; 1000-2000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.