Family: Asteraceae,
Aster or Composite
Genus: Senecio
Description
Plant height: 30-150 cm tall.
Growth habit:
stout perennial from fibrous roots or
rhizomes, often in large clumps.
Stems:
erect, unbranched, leafy.
 Leaves: alternate, numerous, largest near middle of
stem, hairless or obscurely short-hairy. Lower leaves
broadly to narrowly triangular, rather long-stalked, the
upper with shorter stalks or becoming stalkless, often
relatively narrower and scarcely triangular. Leaf blades
4-20 cm long and 2-10 cm wide, strongly toothed.
 Flowerheads: few or rather numerous in a short,
flat-topped cluster, with about 8, or sometimes only 5,
yellow rays, 7-13 mm long. Involucre 7-10 mm high, its
principal bracts about 13 or sometimes only 8.
Flowering time: June-September.
 Fruits: achenes, faintly veined, with pappus of slender,
white, hair-like bristles.
Distribution
Streambanks and other moist places, mostly at
moderate and high elevations in the mountains in w. and
s. parts of MT. Also from AK and Yukon to NM and CA.
Medicinal plant, see below. |
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