William Weber believes that  "Senecio is [such] an enormous, very unnatural genus....  [that] all of our Senecio species except the annual Senecio vulgaris... seem destined to be segregated into other genera."  Weber has moved a number of former Senecio members into the Packera and Ligularia general and a number of prominent botanists now accept these splits.

    Senecios are variable in growth characteristics and can be difficult to identify.  All Senecios pictured on this web site are very common in the San Juans or nearby Canyon Country.

    "Senecio" is from the Latin, "senes", "old man", and refers to the pappus hairs, the white, tiny, hair-like growth at the apex of the seeds in Asteraceae.

Montane. Woodlands, openings. Spring, summer.
Shearer Creek Trail, May 17, 2006.

When one finds Senecio wootonii one usually finds hundreds of plants, often in large colonies.  Each plant can have dozens of bright yellow flowers floating above smooth deep green basal leaves on a nearly leafless stem.  Basal leaves have a slight wing to the petiole.  The stem is light green with faint vertical streaks.

The plant was named by Edward Greene for New Mexico botanist E. O. Wooton (1865-1945).   (More biographical information.)

Montane. Woodlands, openings. Spring, summer.
Shearer Creek Trail, May 17, 2006.

Flower buds at first appear to consist only of disk flowers but time shows the rays as well as the disks.