湖南蒲儿根 hu nan pu er gen

Senecio hunanensis Y. Ling, Contr. Inst. Bot. Natl. Acad. Peiping 5: 15. Jan 1937, not Handel-Mazzetti (Nov 1937).

Herbs, with leafy stems. Rhizomes 5-6 mm in diam., clad in remains of petiole bases, tomentose at collar. Stems solitary, erect, ca. 40 cm, simple, sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent to glabrous. Radical leaves few, rosulate, long petiolate; petiole 12-15 cm, sparsely arachnoid, basally expanded; blade reniform, ca. 4 × 5 cm, membranous, both surfaces thinly arachnoid but soon ± glabrous, palmately 5-veined, base cordate, margin palmately shallowly duplicate-lobed or duplicate-dentate into ca. 9 deltoid, apically callose-mucronulate, laterally dentate short lobes or coarse teeth. Stem leaves 3, smaller, with narrow lobes and teeth, shortly petiolate; petiole winged at base, wings shortly decurrent. Capitula 5 or 6 arranged in terminal subumbelliform corymb; peduncles ca. 2 cm, densely fulvous puberulent, with filiform bract. Involucres cupuliform, 6-8 mm in diam., not calyculate; phyllaries ca. 13, elliptic-oblong, 7-8 × ca. 2.5 mm, herbaceous, margin scarious, glabrous, apex acute and ciliate. Ray florets ca. 10; corolla tube ca. 3.5 mm, glabrous; lamina yellow, oblong-linear, ca. 13 × 2.5 mm, 4-veined, apically 3-denticulate. Disk florets many; corolla yellow, ca. 6 mm, with slender tube and funnelform limb; lobes lanceolate, apically acute. Anthers oblong, basally obtuse; appendages lanceolate. Style branches recurved. Achenes cylindric, ca. 1.5 mm, puberulent. Pappus white, ca. 4.5 mm. Fl. Mar.

● Forest margins on slopes. Hunan (Yizhang).

Sinosenecio hunanensis is currently known only from a single locality. The type specimen consists of one plant with the synflorescence missing. The species is similar to S. euosmus in leaf shape and texture but differs by the petioles of stem leaves winged at base, the wings shortly decurrent, and the achenes puberulent. Geographically, they are also disjunct. From S. sungpanensis it differs in the puberulent achenes and ± glabrous leaves. On the basis of geographical distribution and the puberulent achenes, this species seems more closely related to S. latouchei and S. jiuhuashanicus, but it is easily distinguished by the leaves not white tomentose and the petiole not auriculate at the base.