Plate 179.
Reading edition
SENECIO FULGENS. Natal, Transvaal. Compositae. Tribe Senecionideae. Senecio, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 446.
Senecio fulgens, Nicholson Dict. Gard. vol. iii. p. 420; Kleinia fulgens, Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 5590.
This species of Senecio belongs to the section Kelinoidei of the genus, to which section Senecio stapelliaeformis, figured on Plate 28, is also referred. The species was first introduced into England from Natal by a Mr. Plant in 1886, and flowered at Kew the same year. From these specimens the plate in the “Botanical Magazine” was made.
A comparison of the present plate with that of the “Botanical Magazine” quoted above will show that our plant has a more lax habit, and this is to be explained by the fact that it is growing under the shelter of a large tree. The shape and dentition of the leaves vary considerably. The young leaves are narrowly (1·5 cm.) lanceolate, while adult leaves are broadly (4·5 cm.) obovate. Some of the leaves are quite entire, while others are remotely toothed. All these variations are found on the same plant. On young branches the leaves are grouped in more or less of a rosette at the apex of the branch.
The species is well worthy of cultivation, as it grows luxuriantly and flowers profusely, and often produces flowering stems over 30 cm. long. The flowers are coral-red (R.C.S., Plate XIII).
Description:—A herbaceous shrub up to ·6 m. high. Leaves more or less crowded at the base, 6 to 12 cm. long, 1·5 to 4·5 cm. broad, lanceolate, lanceolate-obovate to obovate, narrowed at the base, entire or remotely toothed, glaucous, fleshy; the older leaves channelled on the upper surface in the lower portion and distinctly keeled beneath. Flowering stems up to 30 cm. long, with scattered leaves 2 to 9 cm. apart, which decrease in size upwards, usually simple. Heads homogamous, solitary. Involucral-bracts 1·9 cm. long, concrete, forming a tube 1 cm. in diameter and oblong in outline, produced into nine lanceolate lobes above. Receptacle slightly concave. Corolla-tube 1·9 cm. long, cylindric, very gradually widening upwards; lobes 2 mm. long, spreading, ovate-oblong, obtuse. Anthers blunt at the base, with a lanceolate apical appendage. Style-branches much recurved, obtuse, with marginal papillae. Ovary 5 mm. long, cylindric, glabrous. Pappus 1·2 cm. long, of many fine bristles. (National Herb., Pretoria, No. 2738.)
Plate 179.—Fig. 1, plant, much reduced; Fig. 2, cross-section of leaf; Fig. 3, longitudinal section of head; Fig. 4, median longitudinal section of flower; Fig. 5, anthers; Fig. 6, style; Fig. 7, fruit and pappus.
F.P.S.A., 1925.
