Erythrocephalum

Annual herbs, or suffrutices with annual stems from a woody rootstock; vegetative indumentum of appressed, fine, +/-matted hairs usually intermixed with large, patent, many-celled uniseriate hairs each bearing a fine filamentous terminal cell. Stems 1-several, simple or branching near apex, araneose-lanate to coarsely pubescent. Leaves alternate, semi-amplexicaul, usually discolorous, indumentum as for stem but denser on lower surface of lamina, sometimes +/-scabrid. Capitula heterogamous, discoid or radiate, 1-many, solitary and terminal on stem and branches when present. Involucre +/-broadly campanulate, +/-truncate at base. Phyllaries many-seriate, appressed imbricate, the innermost grading into paleae of receptacle. Receptacle paleate. Ray florets bisexual, with 2-lipped, deep red corollas, outer lip (ray) large, 3-fid, inner lip shorter, consisting of 2 linear lobes, or ray florets absent. Disc florets deep red or creamy white, occasionally orange-tinged, bisexual and regular, abruptly dilated from near base into a deeply lobed limb, lobes erect, linear. Anthers : bases produced into oblong, fimbriate or ciliolate tails. Styles deeply 2-fid, branch apices shortly conical with a sub-distal fringe of hairs. Cypselas barrel-shaped to cylindric, +/-5-angled or ribbed, usually with a +/-swollen or lobed cartilaginous carpopodium at base, minutely puberulous or glabrous; pappus of 4 or 5 caducous barbellate setae.