小垂头菊 xiao chui tou ju

Ligularia nana Decaisne in Jacquemont, Voy. Inde 4(Bot.): 91. 1843; Cremanthodium deasyi Hemsley; Senecio clarkeanus Franchet (1892), not A. Gray (1868); S. sessilifolius Schultz Bipontinus; Werneria nana (Decaisne) Bentham & J. D. Hooker.

Stem solitary, erect, 5-10 cm tall, proximally glabrous, purplish red, distally densely white puberulent; underground stem white, with scale leaf. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 2-4 cm, glabrous, base sheathed; leaf blade ovate, obovate, or orbicular, 1-3.9 × 0.5-2.7 cm, densely white puberulent or abaxially glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, pinnately or subparallel veined to petiole, base cuneate, margin entire, apex rounded or acute. Stem leaves crowded distally, 2-4, sessile, ovate to oblong, both surfaces white puberulent or adaxially glabrescent, base semiamplexicaul. Capitulum solitary. Involucre hemispheric, 1-1.5 × 1.5-3 cm, outside densely black and white pilose; phyllaries 10-14, in 1 row, base united and cupular; separate part oblong, 2-3 mm wide, spreading at anthesis, apex obtuse or rounded. Ray florets yellow; lamina elliptic, 6-8 × 3-4 mm, shorter than phyllaries, apex obtuse, dentate; tube 3-5 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 5-8 mm; corolla narrowly funnelform. Achenes yellowish brown, linear-cylindric, 3-6 mm, ribbed. Pappus white, numerous, in many rows, outer ones 5-12 mm, longer than tubular corolla, thick. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Gravelly areas on mountains; 4000-5400 m. SW Sichuan, S Xinjiang, Xizang, NW Yunnan [India (Sikkim), Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].