假光果蒲儿根 jia guang guo pu er gen

Senecio phalacrocarpoides C. C. Chang, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 1: 313. 1951.

Herbs, dwarf, with leafy stems. Rhizomes 3-4 mm in diam., clad in persistent brown petiole bases. Stems solitary, to 10 cm tall, branching from near base, sparsely arachnoid, glabrescent. Radical leaves several, long petiolate; petiole 5-8 cm, rather stout, basally slightly expanded, glabrous; blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, subreniform or suborbicular, 3-4 × 3.5-4 cm, glabrous, basally 3-veined, base shallowly cordate or subtruncate, margin palmately shortly duplicate-lobed or coarsely duplicate-dentate, with apically mucronulate deltoid teeth or lobes. Stem leaves 4 or 5, shorter petiolate, smaller. Uppermost leaves ovate-deltoid, lobed or denticulate. Capitula small, rather numerous, arranged in contracted terminal compound corymbs; peduncles campanulate, very short, 2-3 mm, sparsely arachnoid or glabrous, not bracteate. Involucres campanulate, 2-3 mm in diam., not calyculate; phyllaries 8 or 9, subbiseriate, linear, ca. 0.5 mm, herbaceous, glabrous, margin broadly scarious, denticulate in upper part, apex acuminate. Ray florets ca. 6; corolla tube ca. 1.5 mm; lamina yellow, ovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.5-0.6 mm, inconspicuously 4-veined, margin repand, apically rounded. Disk florets ca. 9; corolla yellow, ca. 2.5 mm, with ca. 1.3 mm tube and campanulate limb; lobes ovate-oblong, apically acute. Anthers ca. 1 mm, basally obtuse, appendages ovate-oblong. Style branches ca. 0.5 mm. Achenes cylindric, 1-1.3 mm, smooth, glabrous. Pappus absent. Fl. Mar.

● Mixed forests; ca. 2700 m. W Yunnan (Yongde).

Sinosenecio phalacrocarpoides is distinct in its very small capitula, many arranged in contracted corymbs, very short peduncles, and duplicate-dentate leaves. From the absence of the pappus, this species may be somewhat related to S. globiger and its allies.