Ligularia sibirica, (L.) Cass.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 205

1. L. sibirica (L.) Cass. , Diet. Sci. Nat. 26: 402 (1823).

Green or sometimes purplish-tinged perennial (15—)30—150 cm, with a stout, fibrous stock. Stems erect, usually simple, glabrous or hairy. Basal leaves (3-) 10-25 x (3-)7-20 cm, triangular-reniform to subsagittate, dentate, subglabrous to densely hairy beneath, with petiole usually several times as long as lamina; cauline few, smaller, the upper narrower and subsessile. Capitula shortly pedunculate, in lax, bracteate spikes. Involucre 15-20 mm, with (6-)8-10 lanceolate bracts; supplementary bracts 2, linear, about as long as involucre. Ligules (5—)7— 11, 8-20 x 1-5 mm, yellow. Achenes 4-6 mm; pappus longer than achene, dirty white. 2« = 60. Damp meadows and woods. E. & E.C. Europe southwards to E. Austria, Bulgaria and S. Ural; mountains of C. & S. France. Au Bu Cz Ga Hu Po Rm Rs (N, B, C, W, E).

More or less densely hairy plants with few ligules from N. & C. Russia have been called L. lydiae Minder. , Ukr. Bot. Žur. 14(2): 48 (1957), and dwarf plants with very slender stems have been called L. arctica Pojark. in Schischkin & Bobrov, Fl. URSS 26: 891 (1961) (described from Arctic Russia), or L. bucovinensis Nakai, Jour. Jap. Bot. 20: 135 (1944) (described from the E. Carpathians), but these all seem to be no more than ecological variants.