壮观垂头菊 zhuang guan chui tou ju

Senecio nobilis Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 39: 287. 1892.

Stems 1-4, erect, 15-40 cm tall, 2-4 mm in diam. at base, shortly black pilose, proximally glabrescent. Basal leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; petiole to 3 cm, broadly or narrowly winged; leaf blade obovate, broadly elliptic, or suborbicular, 1.2-10 × 1-5.5 cm, glabrous, pinnate veins prominent abaxially, base cuneate, narrowed into petiole, margin entire, apex obtuse or rounded. Stem leaves few, sessile, narrowly oblong to linear, base not amplexicaul. Capitulum solitary, nodding. Involucre hemispheric, 1.2-1.7 × 2-3 cm, outside shortly brown or dark brown pilose; phyllaries 10-14, in 2 rows; outer phyllaries lanceolate, 4-5 mm wide, apex acuminate; inner phyllaries broadly ovate, to 8 mm wide, margin shortly pilose and broadly membranous, apex acute. Ray florets yellow; lamina narrowly lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 2.5-3.5 × 0.4-1 cm, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate; tube ca. 3 mm. Tubular florets numerous, yellow, 5-6 mm; tube ca. 1 mm. Achenes obovoid, 2-4 mm, conspicuously ribbed, apex narrowed into a short rostrum, between ribs purplish red. Pappus white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Scrub, alpine meadows; 3400-5000 m. SW Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.