ASTERACEAE  

Annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, entire, toothed to pinnatipartite. Capitula radiate, small to large, many-flowered. Involucre campanulate; bracts in 1(2) row, free, linear, acuminate, sometimes with membranous margin. Receptacle flat or somewhat convex, epaleate. Rayflorets female, fertile or sterile (rarely neuter); corolla white above and dark-coloured beneath, or yellow to orange or purple; tube with linear to obovate-oblong, obtuse or 3-toothed lamina 4-8 x as long as tube. Staminodes often present. Style linear, with linear, obtuse branches, fertile or sterile, sometimes lacking. Raycypselas (if present) triquetrous or subterete, sometimes ellipsoid or subglobose, straight or slightly curved, smooth or tuberculate or shortly winged, or with many wing-like protuberances. Pappus 0. Discflorets bisexual, fertile or functionally male; corolla yellow or purple, tube gradually widening above, with 5 lanceolate lobes, sometimes with foot-like appendage. Anthers linear, ecalcarate, shortly sagittate; with lanceolate or ovate apical appendage; endothecial tissue polarised. Style linear, shortly bilobed, with linear-oblong branches, with annular collar of hairs, with or without stigmatic areas. Disccypselas (if present) laterally flattened with thickened margins, rounded or elliptic to obcordate or obovate in outline. Pappus 0. x = 9, 10 (B-chromosomes-1 report).

Annual herbs or subshrubs with annual stems, erect or prostrate, often tomentose. Leaves alternate, occasionally subrosulate, sessile, usually discolorous, entire or serrulate or revolute. Capitula discoid, all florets bisexual; or disciform, outer florets neuter. Involucre subglobose or subcampanulate; bracts in many rows, pungent, glabrous. Receptacle flat, epaleate. Florets with corolla white or purple; tube of bisexual floret dilated above, deeply 5-lobed; neuter florets narrowly tubular, sub-bilabiate or subradiate. Anthers linear; bases sagittate produced into long, retrorse-ciliate tails; apical appendage lanceolate. Style terete, slightly swollen at base, bifid at apex, tips obtuse with minute sweeping hairs. Cypselas obovoid to obconical, ribbed, pilose. Pappus of various bristles and/or scales in several rows; bristles scabrid to barbellate to plumose, apically pilose. x = 11.

Perennial herbs, favouring damp places. Leaves alternate, usually amplexicaul and whitish tomentose on lower surface, dentate. Capitula small, disciform, in loose corymbs. Involucre campanulate or subhemispherical; involucral bracts cartilaginous, in few rows; stereome undivided. Receptacle flat, epaleate. Marginalflorets female, white or blue, bilabiate, in several rows. Style bifid, branches truncate with obtuse sweeping hairs apically; stigmatic surface separated. Cypselas subterete, sparsely hairy with elongated, not myxogenic, uncinate twin hairs; epidermis smooth. Pappus 0. Discflorets functionally male; corolla white or blue, funnel-shaped, 5-lobed, lobes retrofract. Anthers ecalcarate and ecaudate; endothecial tissue with wall thickenings on all walls; apical appendage concave, as wide as thecae. Cypselas reduced. Pappus of 1, apically plumose, capillary bristle.

Shrubs or subshrubs. Leaves alternate, closely set, linear-filiform, ericoid, entire or lobed-pinnatipartite, sometimes with additional lobes from leaf base ('pseudostipules'), subterete-flattened, herbaceous-coriaceous, pubescent-glabrescent, with impressed glands in hollows or furrows. Capitula radiate, solitary, terminal, pedunculate. Involucre hemispherical-cup-shaped; involucral bracts imbricate, ovate-oblong-lanceolate or spathulate, coriaceous with brownish membranous margins and tips, glandular and floccose-woolly or glabrescent. Receptacle convex-hemispherical or subconical, epaleate. Rayflorets female, fertile, 9-21, white-pinkish; tube somewhat compressed, glandular; lamina 4(5)-veined, apically 3-fid. Style branches oblong, truncate. Discflorets bisexual, many, yellow; corolla regular, with somewhat spongy glandular tube and narrow 5-lobed limb. Anthers ecalcarate and ecaudate, with ovate-oblong, obtuse-subtruncate apical appendage; filament collar oblong, of subequal cells. Style fertile with truncate branches; base not much swollen, partly immersed in short and sometimes indistinct nectary. Cypselas oblong, terete or angular, usually 5-ribbed, glandular with broad sessile glands, with myxogenic cell layers, especially abaxially. Pappus an oblique, adaxially longer, white, scarious crown or cup; or of one large adaxial and one smaller abaxial scale, often shorter in disc florets.

Subshrubs or shrubs, sometimes cobwebby. Leaves alternate, densely set, small, spinous-ciliate and sometimes spine-tipped. Capitula radiate, several- to many-flowered, solitary, sessile, terminal on main and side branches, rarely axillary. Involucre campanulate; bracts in 4 rows, connate at base, rigidly spinose-ciliate, sometimes reflexed, glabrous. Receptacle flat, honeycombed. Ray florets neuter; corolla yellow, strap-shaped; tube somewhat compressed, with oblong-linear, 3- or 4-toothed lamina up to 6 times longer than tube. Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, tube slightly expanded or funnel-shaped, with 5 linear lobes. Anthers sagittate at base, with lanceolate, apical appendage. Style terete, with linear, obtuse branches. Cypselas oblong-ellipsoid, smooth, glabrous or very rarely minutely pilose. Pappus 0.