天目山蟹甲草 tian mu shan xie jia cao

Cacalia matsudae Kitamura, J. Jap. Bot. 20: 196. 1944; Koyamacalia matsudae (Kitamura) H. Robinson & Brettell.

Stems robust, erect, distinctly striate, green or purple above, to 120 cm tall, ca. 1.2 cm in diam. at base, branched above; branches ascending or spreading, often divaricate. Leaves long petiolate; petiole ca. 10 cm, not winged, glabrous; lower leaves fallen by anthesis; median stem leaves large; blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially green, broadly pentagonal or hastate, 15-20(-30) × 8-25 cm; terminal lobes large, apically acute; lateral lobes narrowly triangular, small, obscurely angled, both surfaces glabrous, basally 3-veined, veins upward furcately branched, base broadly cuneate or truncate, margin mucronulate-denticulate. Capitula many, 2-2.5 cm when dry, terminal or in upper leaf axils, arranged in broad panicles; peduncles 2.5-5 cm, stout, apex often dilated; bractlets 1 or 2, linear or linear-lanceolate, glabrous. Involucres campanulate, 1.3-1.5 × 1.7-2 cm, not calyculate at base; phyllaries 12, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, subequal, sometimes ± connate, outside puberulent, margin scarious, apically obtuse. Florets ca. 38; corolla yellow, with slender, ca. 3 mm tube and limb; lobes lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally sagittate. Style branches excurved, obtuse, slightly dilated, papillose. Achenes yellow-brown, cylindric, ca. 6 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus sordid red-brown, ca. 9 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep.

● Roadsides, by canals on slopes; ca. 1000 m. Anhui, Zhejiang (Tianmu Shan).