Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Senecio pectinatus var. major

Flowering stems. Photographer Richard Hartland, Mt Hotham, Vic

Flowering stems. Photographer Richard Hartland, Mt Hotham, Vic

Common name

Alpine groundsel

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Alpine and subalpine shrubland and feldmark, heath, herbfields and grassland, commonly near streams or seepage areas. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, and the western edge of the ACT.

Notes

Rhizomatous perennial herb to 0.5 m high. Basal leaves slightly fleshy. Flowering stems hairless or with short more or less appressed hairs. Leaves usually reddish, mostly in a basal rosette, 3-15 cm long, 4–25 mm wide, more or less hairless, dissected or lobed with 3–6 major projections per side, or rarely entire with scalloped to toothed, often wavy, margins. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, more or less lobed, becoming entire, becoming smaller up the stem and grading into bracts. Flower heads with 12–22 yellow 'petals', each 9–20 mm long, and yellow centres 5-17 mm in diameter with about 50-90 florets. Flower heads below the 'petals' broadly bell-shaped, surrounded by 12-30 appressed bracts. Flower heads single, rarely two together. Flowering: summer.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Senecio~pectinatus (accessed 7 February, 2021)