Cremanthodium hookeri C. B. Clarke, Compos. Ind. 169. 1876; C. hookeri f. angustiligulatum R. D. Good; C. hookeri f. irregulare R. D. Good; C. hookeri subsp. polycephalum R. D. Good; C. hookeri f. regulare R. D. Good; Ligularia evaginata C. C. Chang; L. hookeri var. polycephala (R. D. Good) Handel-Mazzetti; Senecio calthifolius J. D. Hooker (1881), not (Maximowicz) Maximowicz (1871); S. feddei H. Léveillé; S. ficariifolius H. Léveillé & Vaniot; S. nimborum Franchet; S. saccosoflabellatus H. Léveillé; S. sikkimensis Franchet.

Stem erect, 17-40 cm tall, slender, 1.5-2 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally white arachnoid-puberulent and shortly pilose. Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 5-10 cm, slender, glabrous, base sheathed; leaf blade cordate-sagittate or reniform, 7-24 × 15-55 mm, glabrous, palmately veined, abaxially with conspicuous reticulate veins, margin triangularly or coarsely dentate, between teeth shortly pilose, apex rounded; sinus 1/3-1/2 as long as leaf blade, broad; basal lobes oblong, divergent or not. Middle stem leaf solitary, shortly petiolate; sheath slightly enlarged, 1.5-2.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade reniform, as large as basal leaves. Distalmost stem leaf solitary, bracteal, cymbiform, to 2.5 cm, margin dentate. Capitula solitary or 2-7(-16), in raceme; leaflike bracts narrowly lanceolate; peduncles to 3.5 cm, slender, arachnoid-puberulent and shortly pilose; supplementary bracts filiform. Involucre campanulate or broadly campanulate, 8-11 × 6-8(-10) mm, outside glabrous; phyllaries 8-10, in 2 rows, oblong, to 3 mm wide, apex acute; inner phyllaries broadly membranous at margin. Ray florets yellow; lamina linear, 1-1.5 cm × 1.5-2 mm, apex acute; tube 3-5 mm. Tubular florets numerous, 7-8 mm; tube 3.5-4 mm. Achenes brown, cylindric, 4.5-6 mm. Pappus brown or pale brown, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. May-Sep. 2n = 58.

Grassy slopes, scrub, forest understories, stream banks, alpine meadows; 3000-4500 m. Shaanxi (Taibai Shan), Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].