Senecio melanocephalus Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 39: 294. 1893; Senecillis melanocephala (Franchet) Kitamura.

Plants grayish green. Stem erect, to 100 cm tall, 6-8 mm in diam. at base, proximally glabrous, distally and synflorescence shortly brown pilose. Basal leaves shortly petiolate; petiole broadly winged, base enlarged sheathed; leaf blade oblong, ovate, or broadly ovate, 14-28 × 9.5-11 cm, herbaceous, glabrous, pinnately veined, with prominent reticulate veins on both surfaces, base cordate or broadly cuneate, narrowed into a petiole, margin denticulate, apex obtuse. Middle to distal stem leaves sessile, oblong to lanceolate, 14-27 × 8-10 cm, base auriculate-amplexicaul, apex obtuse or acute. Synflorescence racemose, 30-40 cm, lax; leaflike bracts linear, to 3.5 cm, smaller distally; peduncles 5-30 mm. Capitula numerous; supplementary bracts subulate. Involucre blackish gray, turbinate, rarely subcampanulate, 5-8 × ca. 5 mm, outside glabrous; phyllaries 7 or 8, in 2 rows, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate; inner phyllaries membranous at margin. Ray florets 8-12, yellow; lamina oblong or elliptic, 4-8 × 2-3.5 mm, 2- or 3-dentate, apex rounded; tube ca. 2 mm. Tubular florets numerous, 5-6 mm, higher than involucre; tube 1.5-2 mm. Achenes reddish brown, cylindric, to 7 mm, prominently ribbed. Pappus yellowish white, as long as tubular corolla. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

● Forest margins, forest understories, grassy slopes; 3400-4000 m. Sichuan (Daocheng, Muli), NW Yunnan.