红毛蟹甲草 hong mao xie jia cao

Senecio rufipilis Franchet, J. Bot. (Morot) 8: 359. 1894; Cacalia rufipilis (Franchet) Y. Ling; Koyamacalia rufipilis (Franchet) H. Robinson & Brettell.

Plants erect, 60-80 cm tall. Rhizomes robust, with many tomentose fibrous roots. Stem solitary, striate, simple, red-brown hyaline villous in lower part, white arachnoid-villous in upper part. Leaves long petiolate; lower leaves withered by anthesis; petiole not winged, 5-10 cm, red-brown villous. Median leaf blades broadly ovate-cordate or reniform, 7.5-13 × 8-19 cm, with red-brown hyaline glandular hairs, palmately 5-7-veined, veins raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, base deeply cordate, margin triangularly 5-lobulate or deeply serrate, apex acute. Upper leaves smaller, shortly petiolate. Capitula many, arranged in panicles at apex of stem; synflorescence branches crowded; rachis and peduncles white arachnoid; peduncles very short, with 1-3 triangular bractlets. Involucres cylindric, 10-13 × ca. 3 mm; phyllaries 5 or 6, linear-lanceolate, shortly brown pubescent, margin scarious, apically rounded-obtuse. Florets 5; corolla yellow, ca. 1 cm; tube slender, ca. 3 mm; limb broadly tubular; lobes triangular. Anthers exserted from corolla, basally caudate. Style branches excurved, apically truncate, papillose. Achenes cylindric, ca. 5 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus white, ca. 1 cm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep.

● Grasslands, thickets, forests on slopes; 1100-1800 m. Gansu, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan.

Parasenecio rufipilis differs from P. dasythyrsus and P. bulbiferoides by its plants red-brown hyaline glandular pubescent; leaf axils without scaly buds; capitula more dense, larger; and peduncles and involucres red-brown villous.