Senecio pinnatifolius

Senecio pinnatifolius is a highly variable annual to short-lived perennial herb in the Asteraceae endemic to Australia, ranging across coastal dunes, headlands, river flats, montane grasslands and inland rocky outcrops from Queensland south through New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and into South Australia. Several geographical varieties differ markedly in habit and leaf shape. Plants are erect, 15 to 80 centimetres tall, with one or several glabrous to sparsely cobwebby stems arising from a slender taproot. The alternate leaves are 3 to 15 centimetres long, fleshy in coastal forms and thinner in inland forms, pinnately lobed to pinnatisect with lanceolate to oblong segments, the basal leaves stalked and the upper sessile and clasping. Flower heads are arranged in loose, flat-topped corymbs at the stem tips; each head is 1 to 2 centimetres across with eight to thirteen bright yellow ray florets surrounding numerous yellow disc florets above a cylindrical involucre of equal green phyllaries tipped black. The fruit is a slender cylindrical ribbed achene crowned by a soft white pappus that aids wind dispersal.