白子菜 bai zi cai

Senecio divaricatus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 866. 1753; Cacalia incana Linnaeus; C. ovalis Ker Gawler; Gynura auriculata Cassini; G. hemsleyana H. Léveillé; G. ovalis (Ker Gawler) Candolle; G. ovalis var. pinnatifida Hemsley; G. panershenia Z. Y. Zhu.

Herbs, perennial. Stems erect, or ± ascending from base, 30-60 cm tall, woody, striate when dry, simple or with synflorescence branched in upper part, glabrous or shortly pubescent, purplish. Leaves thick, usually crowded in lower part, petiolate or subsessile; petiole 0.5-4 cm, shortly pubescent, with ovate or half-moon-shaped, dentate auricle at base; blade abaxially purplish, adaxially green, ovate, elliptic, or oblanceolate, 2-15 × 1.5-5 cm, both surfaces shortly pubescent, with conspicuous black lines when dry, lateral veins 6-10-paired, veinlets often coalescent into subparallel oblong reticulate veins, base cuneate-attenuate or decurrent into petiole, subtruncate or slightly cordate, margin coarsely dentate, sometimes lyrately lobed, rarely entire, apex obtuse or acute. Upper leaves smaller, bractlike, narrowly lanceolate or linear, pinnatifid, sessile, semiamplexicaul. Capitula 1.5-2 cm in diam., usually (2 or)3-5 terminal laxly corymbose-paniculate, often divaricately branched; peduncles 1-15 cm, densely shortly pubescent; bracts 1-3, linear. Involucres campanulate, 8-10 × 6-8 mm; bracts of calyculus several, linear or filiform; phyllaries 11-14, narrowly lanceolate, 8-10 × 1-2 mm, sparsely shortly pubescent or subglabrous, 3-veined, margin scarious, apically acuminate, narrowly triangular. Florets orange-yellow, fragrant, slightly exceeding involucres; corolla 11-15 mm, with 9-10 mm tube and narrowly campanulate limb; lobes oblong-ovate, apically reddish, acute. Anthers obtuse or rather hastate at base. Style branches slender; appendages conical, papillose. Achenes brown, cylindric, ca. 5 mm, puberulent, 10-ribbed. Pappus white, silky, 10-12 mm. Fl. Aug-Oct.

Grassy and weedy slopes, wet places by fields, seaside rocks; sea level to 2800 m. Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan [N Vietnam].