Senecio speciosus Willd.

Perennial herb with a stout woody stock c. 1.5 cm in diam. Flowering stems several from the crown, often decumbent at the base, then erect to c. 70 cm, nearly glabrous to softly glandular-pilose, simple below, forking above into the corymbose inflorescence, generally sparsely leafy. Leaves mostly radical, rosetted, c. 10-20(-40) x 2-4(-11) cm, spathulate or elliptic tapering to a broad, flat, petiole-like clasping base, apex subacute to obtuse, margins pinnately lobed, sinuately lobed, lobulate or coarsely deltoid-toothed, the margins of the lobes often denticulate, usually glandular-pubescent, sometimes glabrous, sometimes lightly cobwebby below, cauline leaves much smaller than the radical, oblong becoming lanceolate upwards and passing into inflorescence bracts, base subauricled, clasping. Heads radiate, c. 12-15 x 12-15 mm across the top of the flattened pappus, few to many, corymbosely or sometimes subracemosely arranged. Involucral bracts c. 16-20, (9-)10(-12) mm long, glandular-pilose to glabrous or nearly so. calyculus bracts very few, short. Rays 8-12-14(-20), they and the disc deep pink to purple. Achenes cylindric, pubescent between the ribs.