any chance of a close up of the flower. I have seen it before and it is on the tip of my tongue. grrr i hate this not reembering.

I think its Senecio tangutica or Chinese Groundsel.

....now called Sinacalia tangutica.

is it a ligularia?

These are the only pics they sent me SBG, but from the time they took to download they're high definition. I'll have a go on Paint and see if I can make a close up for you.

.....by way of intermediate Ligularia tangutica.

Now I know Senecio has been split up but this is ridiculous! Anyway, it appears that the official name is now Sinacalia tangutica.

ah I think you are right there fractal.

Stanton Hall near to me sells many interesting herbaceous plants and this is one of them. Several years ago I looked in on them and found this which was new to me at the time. When I looked at the roots of one and saw the rhizomes spiralling round and round the pot though I had second thoughts!

God forbid if they tackle the genus Euphorbia!!! Second in size only to Senecio in number of species.

Wow! You're so fast - that whole ID conversation plus the route to the final name took just 20 minutes with the first answer in 10.

I'll let you know now - my suggestion that it could be a Ligularia was met with a resounding "NOOOOOOO" !! :-)

Thanks for all the info on its classification and re-classification.