Senecio platyglossus Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 39: 293. 1893; Ligularia kanaitzensis (Franchet) Handel-Mazzetti var. ruficeps Handel-Mazzetti; L. potaninii Pojarkova var. yunnanensis Pojarkova; Senecillis platyglossa (Franchet) Kitamura.

Stem erect, 30-100 cm tall, 5-8 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally white arachnoid-puberulent and shortly pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 10-30 cm, narrowly, entirely winged, base sheathed; leaf blade ovate or ovate-cordate, 11-40 × 6-20 cm, glabrous, pinnately veined, base shallowly cordate, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin undulate-dentate, apex obtuse. Stem leaves sessile, without sheath, erect, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 2-16 cm, smaller distally, margin dentate, apex acute. Synflorescence racemose, 15-50 cm, proximally sometimes shortly branched; leaflike bracts narrowly lanceolate or linear to filiform, to 5.5 cm; peduncles 4-30 mm, shortly pilose. Capitula numerous; supplementary bracts linear. Involucre broadly turbinate, 7-10 mm, mouth to 1.5 cm in diam., outside glabrous; phyllaries 8-11, in 2 rows, ovate-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-4(-5) mm, apex acute; inner phyllaries broadly membranous at margin. Ray florets yellow; lamina oblong, 1-2 cm × 2-4.5 mm, apex acute; tube ca. 5 mm. Tubular florets numerous, 6-8 mm; tube ca. 2 mm. Achenes brown, cylindric, 4-6 mm. Pappus reddish brown or yellowish white initially, slightly shorter than tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov.

● Stream banks, grassy slopes, forest understories; 1200-3800 m. NE and NW Yunnan.