Senecio extensus
I.Thomps. Subalpine FireweedErect or ascending perennial, 20–60 cm high, aerial stems renewed annually from a short rhizome; stems sparsely to moderately appressed-cottony, glabrescent. Leaves minutely scabrous, usually sparsely cobwebbed when young, finally glabrous or nearly so, with irregularly denticulate or dentate margins; mid-stem leaves pseudopetiolate, oblanceolate or spathulate, 5–12 cm long, 5–18 mm wide, lobate or less often not dissected, attenuate to cuneate at base; upper leaves commonly auriculate, very narrow-elliptic, lobate to deeply lobate. Inflorescence corymbose, c. 3–12 cm across, with c. 5–40(–90) capitula; capitula non-radiate; involucre cylindric, 5.0–7.0 mm long, sparsely cobwebbed at base or glabrescent; bracts 11–14; bracteoles conspicuous, the longest c. half to two-thirds as long as bracts; florets c. 20–45, bisexual and female. Cypselas bluntly fusiform, 2.0–2.2 mm long, red-brown, lustrous, glabrous; pappus of slender hairs 5–6 mm long, deciduous. Flowers Jan.–Mar.
HSF, HNF, VAlp. Confined to grasslands above c. 1500 m, and apparently rather rare, recorded from Snowy Range, Dargo High Plains, Bogong High Plains, and The Playgrounds near the Cobberas.
Close to S. glomeratus but distinguished by the rhizomatous habit, the fewer, less cobwebbed involucres with relatively long bracteoles, and the glabrous cypselas (and in the latter feature resembling S. psilocarpus).
Spinning
