翠雀蟹甲草 cui que xie jia cao

Cacalia delphiniifolia Siebold & Zuccarini, Abh. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 4(3): 190. 1846; C. delphiniphylla (H. Léveillé) Handel-Mazzetti; C. pilgeriana (Diels) Y. Ling subsp. delphiniphylla (H. Léveillé) H. Koyama; Parasenecio delphiniphyllus (H. Léveillé) Y. L. Chen; P. tongchuanensis Y. L. Chen; Senecio delphiniphyllus H. Léveillé; S. syneilesis Franchet & Savatier; S. zuccarinii Maximowicz.

Plants 80-150 cm tall; rhizomes not seen. Stem solitary, erect, striate, often becoming purple in lower part, shortly pubescent or subglabrous. Leaves petiolate; lower leaves withered by anthesis. Median leaves 3 or 4; petiole not winged, 4-6.5 cm, shortly yellow-brown hairy; blade broadly reniform or ovate-reniform, 9-15 × 11-18 cm, base truncate, palmately lobed, apex long caudate-acuminate; lobes 5-7, narrowly obovate or oblong-ovate, sometimes secondarily pinnately lobed, abaxially yellow-brown pubescent, adaxially adpressed shortly hairy, veins raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, basally 5-veined, lateral veins upward branched, margin sparsely serrate, teeth mucronulate, apex caudate or acuminate. Upper leaves shortly petiolate, small. Capitula many, terminal, arranged in narrow panicles; rachis and peduncle densely glandular shortly hairy; peduncles ca. 1 mm, with 1 or 2 linear or triangular bractlets. Involucres cylindric, 5-6 × 2-3 mm; phyllaries 5, oblong-lanceolate, 1-1.5 mm wide, sparsely shortly pubescent, margin narrowly scarious, apically obtuse or slightly acute. Florets 5; corolla yellow, ca. 8 mm; tube slender, ca. 3 mm; limb broadly tubular, lobes ovate-lanceolate. Anthers not exserted from corolla, basally long caudate. Style branches apically truncate, papillose. Achenes dark brown, cylindric, 4-5 mm, glabrous, ribbed. Pappus brownish, ca. 6 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Shaded wet places of forest understories, slopes; 1600-3200 m. Guizhou, E Yunnan [Japan].