蓝花野茼蒿 lan hua ye tong hao

Senecio rubens Jussieu ex Jacquin, Hort. Vindob. 3: 50. 1777.

Plants erect, 20-100(-150) cm tall. Stems usually repent at base, striate, simple or few branched, pubescent or subglabrous. Leaves sessile; blade obovate, oblanceolate, elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, 1-20 × 0.5-7.5 cm, pubescent at least abaxially on veins, cuneate or attenuate into petaloid base, margin sinuate-dentate to sinuate-serrate, unlobed or lyrate-pinnately or pinnately lobed, apex rounded to acute. Capitula 1-8, solitary on long peduncles. Involucres cylindric, 0.8-1.3 cm, with 5-22 calycular bracts; phyllaries uniseriate, linear-lanceolate, equal, ca. 1.5 mm wide, often tinged purple below apex, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, apex purple. Florets tubular, bisexual; corollas blue, purple, or mauve, sometimes pink or red; lobes 5. Style branches acute, papillose. Achenes 2-2.5 mm, ribbed, hairy in grooves. Pappus of numerous white setae, 7-12 mm. Fl. Dec-Apr of next year.

Wastelands, roadsides, grasslands; 500-600 m. Yunnan [native to Africa, SW Asia (Yemen), Indian Ocean islands (Comoros, Mascarene Islands), and Madagascar].

Crassocephalum rubens is an invasive species in China.