Ligularia amplectens
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Subalpine, alpine. Woodlands, openings. Summer. .

This is a common, very cheerful Sunflower that grows scattered or in small patches in high mountain mid-summer. It grows very straight and upright, but its flowers demurely nod. Flower rays are a bright lemon-yellow and ray tips are pointed. Leaves are mainly basal, long, narrow, and may be relatively smooth-margined or toothed.

"Ligula" is Latin for "strap", probably referring to the long petals or leaves of some members of this genus.  "Amplect" is "to embrace", " to clasp", referring to the way in which the base of the leaves clasps the stems.

Asa Gray named this plant Senecio amplectens in 1862 from a specimen collected by Charles Parry in Colorado.  Presently John Kartesz's Synthesis of the North American Flora and Intermountain Flora combine this species with Ligularia holmii; the former is called Senecio amplectens variety amplectens and the latter Senecio amplectens variety holmii.

n the mid-1800s Asa Gray classified this plant as a Senceio. Today many botanical guides, including Synthesis of the North American Flora and Intermountain Flora, still place them in the Senecio genus.  But in 1973 William Weber made the case for moving several Seneicos, including Senecio amplectens, to the Ligularia genus, a genus established by Cassini in 1816; this web site follows Weber's taxonomy.