Parasenecio hastatus

Parasenecio hastatus (L.) H.Koyama (Asteraceae), sometimes treated under Cacalia hastata, is a perennial herb of cool-temperate East Asia, ranging across northern China, the Russian Far East, Korea, Japan and into eastern Siberia. From a creeping rhizome arise erect, simple stems 50-150 cm tall, sparsely pubescent above. The alternate leaves are conspicuously hastate or sagittate, broadly triangular with sharply angled basal lobes, 6-20 cm long and irregularly serrate; the lower leaves are long-petiolate while upper leaves become sessile and clasping. The inflorescence is an open, much-branched terminal corymb of numerous small, narrow, cylindric flower heads about 1 cm tall, each containing several white to pale pink discoid florets; ray florets are absent. Achenes are glabrous, ribbed and topped by a white pappus of fine bristles. The species inhabits moist forest margins, meadows, streambanks and shrub thickets, typically on humus-rich soils in light shade.