狗头七 gou tou qi

Senecio pseudochina Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 867. 1753; Cacalia bulbosa Loureiro; Gynura bodinieri H. Léveillé; G. bulbosa (Loureiro) Hooker & Arnott; S. bulbosus (Loureiro) H. Léveillé (1916), not Schultz Bipontinus (1867); S. crassipes H. Léveillé & Vaniot.

Herbs, perennial, scapigerous, 20-50 cm tall, slightly fleshy. Roots globose or sometimes branched, tuberiform, (1-)2-6 cm in diam., fleshy, with many fibrous roots. Stems erect, 1-3, ascending or creeping, green or purplish, striate when dry, sparsely pubescent or glabrous. Leaves often crowded at base of stem, rosulate; petiole 0.5-3 cm, basally broad, slightly fleshy, not auriculate; blade abaxially often purplish, adaxially green, obovate, spatulate, or elliptic, rarely ovate, 5-18 × 2.5-5 cm, both surfaces sparsely shortly pubescent or ± glabrescent, lateral veins 8-20-paired, to lobes or curved before margins, inconspicuous, base gradually attenuate into petiole, margin pinnatifid, rarely dentate; lobes triangular or ovate-oblong, entire or denticulate, apex obtuse or rather acute. Median or upper leaves reduced, or with 1 or 2 leaflets, shortly petiolate or subsessile; leaflets pinnatilobed, lobes small, both surfaces pubescent. Capitula 1-5, 10-15 mm in diam., terminal, laxly corymbose; peduncles 0.5-4 cm, often with 1 or 2 linear or filiform-linear bracteoles, densely or sparsely pubescent. Involucres campanulate, 10-12 × 8-10 mm; bracts of calyculus 8 or 9, unequal, linear; phyllaries uniseriate, 13, green or purplish, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, 7-12 × ca. 1.5 mm, conspicuously 1-3-ribbed, sparsely shortly pubescent, margin broadly scarious, apically acuminate. Florets yellow to reddish; corolla 10-13 mm, distinctly exceeding involucre, tube 7-9 mm, slender, expanded above; lobes ovate-triangular, apically obtuse. Anthers obtuse at base. Style branch tips conical, papillose. Achenes red-brown, cylindric, 3-4 mm, glabrous or puberulent, 10-ribbed. Pappus hairs numerous, white, 10-12 mm, sericeous, early deciduous. Fl. Apr-Nov. 2n = 20.

Sandy places on slopes, forest margins, roadsides; 200-2100 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa; tropical Africa; cultivated in Indonesia (Java)].