The plant looks very similar to the Petasites plant of earlier. But am unable to find a yellow flowered one in my books or under Google Search.
Apart from being in the same huge family with tiny ray flowers borne in heads (capitula, botanically) there is little resemblance between this and a Petasites. All those I am familiar with, including the species native to this region have creeping rootstocks producing large basal leaves that emerge separately from the stems bearing the flowers. The common one down here is P. frigidus, the flowering stems of this one emerge well before the leaves appear. Exotic (foreign) species cultivated here show the same behavior.
