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Senecio formosus; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2025-10-12

Senecio formosus Kunth

Asteraceae · Venezuela, Bolivia +2

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Senecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSenecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSenecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSenecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSenecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSenecio formosus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 60 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
4.2°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
13°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,213mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–32DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Senecio

Senecio is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes groundsels and some ragworts. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus Senecio is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Plants of the World Online currently accepts 1482 species.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Senecio", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,672 mm of 2,186 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 1.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,186 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,672 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month April at 267 mm, driest month January at 87 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,460 mm to 3,914 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,213 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,186 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 32 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.2 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 0.9 °C to 8.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 13.2 °C in March and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 4.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July and August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Senecio formosus through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 13 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 4.2 °C; 2,186 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–32RH 65–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 156 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C13 / 8–1813 / 9–1813 / 9–1813 / 9–1713 / 9–1712 / 8–1712 / 8–1713 / 8–1713 / 9–1813 / 9–1813 / 9–1713 / 8–17
Night °C5 / 0–85 / 1–95 / 2–96 / 2–96 / 2–95 / 2–94 / 1–84 / 1–84 / 1–85 / 2–95 / 2–95 / 1–9
Rain mm87 / 39–212127 / 64–240188 / 107–319267 / 170–427256 / 151–455177 / 92–358157 / 66–331156 / 57–289172 / 84–336237 / 159–452218 / 142–397144 / 71–263
DLI32 / 29–3432 / 29–3431 / 28–3426 / 24–3225 / 23–3125 / 22–3127 / 25–3330 / 27–3531 / 28–3729 / 26–3228 / 25–3130 / 27–32
RH %65 / 60–7066 / 61–7167 / 63–7169 / 65–7369 / 64–7369 / 63–7368 / 62–7367 / 61–7165 / 61–7067 / 63–7067 / 64–7066 / 62–70

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1090 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 156 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (308 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1691:2128 (5.425, -73.575). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 156 distinct grid cells holding 308 of the 309 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1691:2128 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected +1090 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3352 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeVenezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker4.822, -74.098 · in the densest population, 254 records (59% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 433 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 308 of them in the land cells it reads, of 309 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 249 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 124 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 433 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Senecio formosus, photograph 1did not loadSenecio formosus, photograph 2did not loadSenecio formosus, photograph 3did not loadSenecio formosus, photograph 4did not loadSenecio formosus, photograph 5did not loadSenecio formosus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Oritrophium peruvianum Oritrophium peruvianum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovSenecio niveoaureus Senecio niveoaureus Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedValeriana pilosa Valeriana pilosa Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Emma OxfordDisterigma empetrifolium Disterigma empetrifolium Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Yannick PochonCarex pichinchensis Carex pichinchensis Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovSenecio formosoides Senecio formosoides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, My-Lan Le

Other Senecio 118 in the reference

Senecio achilleifolius Senecio achilleifolius Redstem Ragwort Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloSenecio altissimus Senecio altissimus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Connor Connolly-MoylsSenecio ampullaceus Senecio ampullaceus Texas ragwort Photo: CC BY, Holly Bonorden JentschSenecio angulatus Senecio angulatus Cape ivy Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaSenecio antandroi Senecio antandroi Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Pieter PelserSenecio arenarius Senecio arenarius Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetSenecio argyreus Senecio argyreus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Todd BolandSenecio atratus Senecio atratus Tall blacktip ragwort Photo: CC0, author not stated Senecio baccharidifolius Asteraceae Senecio behrianus Asteraceae Senecio bigelovii Senecio bigelovii Nodding ragwort Photo: CC0, author not statedSenecio bipinnatisectus Senecio bipinnatisectus Australian fireweed Photo: CC BY, William Harland all 119 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Senecio cervilingua; Senecio formosus f. obtusatus; Senecio formosus var. angustifolius; Senecio formosus var. latifolius; Senecio tabacon. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Kunth
Native to
Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia +1
Wild records
433 in range · 249 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.50_-73.750, lapse-corrected +1090 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1090 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 56 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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