Roldana petasitis, also known as the velvet groundsel or Californian geranium,Velvet Groundsel Better Homes & Gardens. Retrieved 28 March 2023. is a species of the genus Roldana and family Asteraceae that used to be classified in the genus Senecio. It is native to Central America.
Description
It is an evergreen subshrub that thrives in constant heat and prefers sheltered gardens. Growing up to 1.8 m tall, it features weak stems, large softly hairy, venated, palmate leaves that are 20 cm long and wide at most, with seven or more broad, blunt lobes.Roldana petasitis (Sims) H.Rob. & Brettell PlantNET. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
Inflorescences The 8 to 10 mm long, yellow flowerheads, like daisies, of about 6 ray ligulate petals are borne in foliaceous panicles. The plant blooms from winter to early spring.
Varieties 'Roldana p. var. cristobalensis' is a variety of this plant which features leaves with purple undersides.Roldana petasitis var. cristobalensis (Greenm.) FunstonBoard of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Retrieved 12 April 2023.Senecio cristobalensis syn. Roldana petasitis var. cristobalensis Special Plants.net by Derry Watkins. Retrieved 12 April 2023. 'Roldana petasitis var. oaxacana' and 'sartorii' are other varieties.Roldana petasitis var. oaxacana (Hemsl.) Funston Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Retrieved 12 April 2023.Roldana petasitis var. sartorii (Sch.Bip. ex Hemsl.) Funston Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Retrieved 12 April 2023.
Distribution The plant is native to the subtropical highlands (Sierra Madre del Sur) of Oaxaca in Mexico, south to the tropics in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.Steven Foster's Images of Senecio petasitis, Roldana petasitis, Velvet Grounsel, California geranium Steven Foster PhotographyTaxonomic Revision of Roldana (Asteraceae: Senecioneae), a Genus of the Southwestern U.S.A., Mexico, and Central America1 Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden by A. Michele Funston. January 2009. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
Climatically, it is found in the tropical savanna climates grading into the drier semi-arid or temperate wet/dry areas, where it is present from Veracruz in the north to Nicaragua in the south, in both pine-oak and mountain cloud forests between 1,000m and 2,500m. The 'cristobalensis' variety is found in Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state, and in Guatemala between elevations 1,000m and 1,600m.Roldana cristobalensis (formerly Senecio cristobalensis…now, Roldana petasitis var. cristobalensis) GardenRiots Horticultural Forays Into a Changing Urban World It is naturalized in parts of southeastern Australia and New Zealand.Roldana petasitis (Sims) H. Rob. & Brettell Environmental Weeds of Australia.
Neotropic Mexico Southwest: Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca Mesoamerica: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
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