尼泊尔藤菊 ni bo er teng ju

Senecio buimalia Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 178. 1825.

Subshrubs or herbs, large, scandent, to 3-5 m. Stems becoming woody, white tomentose. Petiole 3-5 cm, densely to sparsely arachnoid, sometimes also fulvous hairy; leaf blade abaxially grayish white, adaxially deep green, ovate or ovate-triangular, 5-10 × 3.5-7 cm, thinly papery, abaxially arachnoid, adaxially at first sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent, palmately 3-5-veined, base cordate, margin ± sinuate-denticulate with mucronulate teeth, apex acute-acuminate-apiculate. Upper and synflorescence leaves smaller, ovate to lanceolate, basally cordate to cuneate. Capitula radiate, 8-12 mm in diam., numerous, arranged in usually 3-5-headed terminal and upper axillary compound corymbs, forming rather lax divaricately branching thyrsoid clusters; peduncles 10-15 mm, slender, densely gray tomentose, with 1 or 2 linear-subulate bracts or bracteoles. Involucres cylindric to narrowly campanulate, 8-12 × 4-6 mm, calyculate; bracts of calyculus 5, linear-subulate, unequal, much shorter than phyllaries; phyllaries 5 or 8, oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm wide, herbaceous, densely to sparsely arachnoid-tomentose, margin broadly scarious, apically obtuse to acute and puberulent. Ray florets 5 or 6; corolla tube 7-8 mm; lamina yellow, oblong-linear, 3-5 × 1-1.5 mm, 4- or 5-veined, apex entire or 3-denticulate. Disk florets 10-12; corolla yellow, 13-14 mm, with ca. 7.5 mm tube and funnelform limb; lobes oblong-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, apically acute. Anthers 3.5-4 mm; anther tails shorter than antheropodia; appendages ovate-lanceolate; antheropodia dilated toward base. Style branches ca. 2.5 mm, fringed with short papillae, terminal tuft absent. Achenes cylindric, ca. 5.5 mm, glabrous. Pappus white or dirty white, yellowish at base, 11-12 mm. Fl. Feb.

Climbing in scrub; ca. 2100 m. Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].