ASTERACEAE  

Annual or perennial herbs, usually hairy, prostrate or ascending. Leaves opposite, petiolate, toothed or pinnately cut with segments few, narrow. Capitula radiate; on long peduncles, solitary. Involucre campanulate; bracts in 2 or 3 rows. Receptacle flat or convex, paleate; paleae membranous, keeled but scarcely clasping disc florets, persistent. Ray florets female, fertile; corolla yellow or creamy, strap-shaped. Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow or greenish, cylindric, 5-lobed or 5-toothed. Anthers with bases sagittate; apical appendages narrowly deltoid. Style branches of ray florets shortly linear-lanceolate; of disc florets much longer, acuminate with subulate appendage, hairy on outer faces. Cypselas obconical, villous. Pappus of many plumose bristles. x = 9 (3, 10) (polyploidy).

Biennial or perennial herbs with milky latex. Leaves alternate, amplexicaul, entire, grass-like, glabrous. Capitula ligulate; solitary, terminal, long-peduncled. Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate; bracts in 1 row, lanceolate-acuminate, basally somewhat connate. Receptacle slightly convex, shallowly honeycombed, epaleate. Florets (ligules) bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, blue or purple, strap-shaped, tube linear, slightly shorter than lamina, pilose at junction of lamina and tube; lamina broadly linear, truncate, 5-toothed. Anthers with base sagittate, auricles acute or shortly setaceous-acuminate. Style linear, becoming terete above, glandular-pubescent on cylindric portion; branches filiform, glandular. Cypselas fusiform, with slender beak, strongly ribbed; ribs tuberculate, pilose at apex, otherwise glabrous. Pappus of many plumose and intertwined bristles, often scabrid-barbellate apically. x = 6 (7) (polyploidy, B-chromosomes).

Annual herbs. Leaves usually alternate, simple, entire or often deeply lobed. Capitula radiate, solitary or few together; on long peduncles, thickened towards apex. Involucre hemispherical or broadly campanulate; bracts in 2-5 rows. Receptacle convex, paleate; paleae rigid, usually lobed, acuminate to aristate, embracing disc florets. Ray florets neuter; corolla yellow or orange, strap-shaped; tube somewhat compressed, linear-oblong, much shorter than lamina; lamina long-lanceolate, minutely 2- or 3-lobed. Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, slender, 5-toothed. Anthers linear, obtuse or very shortly sagittate, with lanceolate appendages. Style terete, globose at base; branches narrowly oblong, gradually widening upward to acutely triangular tips, pubescent on outer faces. Cypselas linear-obovate, usually 4-angled. Pappus of connate scales, sometimes with 1 or 2 awns. x = 17 (5, 8, 11) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).

Shrubby perennial; branches closely leafy. Leaves alternate, lanceolate, margins entire, sessile, bases decurrent in long narrow wings, green above drying grey, with thin skin-like indumentum, white-tomentose below (hair type B). Capitula disciform, cylindric, in small terminal clusters, often further aggregated into spreading corymbose panicle. Involucralbracts in several rows, imbricate, graded, inner ones with stereome undivided, tips shortly exceeding flowers, radiating, opaque milk-white or occasionally pink. Receptacle flat, paleate; paleae resembling inner involucral bracts. Florets 17-26, 3-11 female, corolla purple, narrowly tubular or filiform; 10-17 bisexual, outnumbering female flowers, corolla purple, tubular below, campanulate above, 5-lobed, all lobes with glandular hairs on backs. Anthers ecalcarate, caudate, tails shorter or longer than filament collar; with lanceolate apical appendage; endothecial tissue polarised. Style branches with slightly rounded tips, with short, obtuse, sweeping hairs extending briefly down backs. Cypselas oblong, with elongate duplex hairs with basal swelling cushion, myxogenic. Pappus bristles scabrid above, cilia +/- fused, shaft scabridulous, base nude, not cohering, caducous.

Perennial herbs, acaulescent, scapigerous, with milky latex, with simple or branched taproots. Leaves rosulate, entire, sinuate, mostly runcinate-dentate to pinnatifid-pinnatisect. Scapes 1-many, simple, hollow. Capitula ligulate, solitary, terminal. Involucre campanulate or oblong; bracts in 2 rows, inner row erect, outer row shorter and spreading or recurved. Receptacle flat, epaleate, pitted. Florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, rarely white, strap-shaped. Anthers sagittate at base; auricles shortly setaceous-acuminate. Style with branches long, slender; sweeping hairs long. Cypselas obovoid -fusiform, ribbed apically scabrid to transversely muricate, with distinct, long, slender beak. Pappus of many, long, unequal, scabrid-barbellate bristles. x = 6, 8 (4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 17) (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes).