ASTERACEAE  

Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate or sometimes opposite or rosulate, entire to bipinnatisect. Capitula disciform or rarely radiate, few- to many-flowered, solitary, pedunculate; peduncle +/- solid or sometimes inflated below head. Involucre subglobose or campanulate; bracts in +/- 2 rows, usually scarious at least at margins. Receptacle flat to conical, often toothed with persistent pedicels, epaleate. Marginal florets female, fertile, in 1 or several rows, generally stalked; corolla tube short or absent, lamina generally absent, white if present. Discflorets bisexual, fertile, or functionally male; corolla tube campanulate, funnel-shaped, tubular or 4-angled, sometimes tubular below, expanded above, sometimes compressed or winged, sometimes pouched at base and wholly or partially enveloping ovary, 4-lobed, occasionally 3-lobed. Anthers ecalcarate and ecaudate, with ovate or lanceolate, apical appendage. Style branches of female flowers linear-lanceolate, of bisexual flowers oblong, truncate, penicillate. Cypselas generally stipitate, dorsally compressed, often laterally winged, generally with blunt uniseriate hairs. Pappus 0. x = 13 (8, 9, 10, 12) (aneuploids, high polyploidy).

Acaulescent, herbaceous, tufted plants, monocotyledonous in appearance in vegetative state. Leaves basal, linear to broadly elliptic-lanceolate, parallel venation with or without prominent veins, glabrous, villous or hirsute. Capitula discoid, 1-flowered, arranged in racemes, panicles or corymbs . Involucre spindle-shaped; bracts in 2 rows with 2 upper bracts sheathing flower, glabrous or scabrid. Corolla mauve, pink or white, salverform with short tube; 5-lobed, lobes longer than tube, linear to oblong. Anthers linear, connate, shortly sagittate, without distinct apical appendage. Style exserted, terete, bifid; branches hispid on outer surface. Cypselas linear to elliptic, hirsute or villous. Pappus short, crown-like, or of free, fine bristles. x = 8 (1 report).

Annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely also in basal rosette, entire, toothed or rarely dissected. Capitula disciform or shortly radiate, in few-headed loose corymbs or panicles, rarely subglobosely arranged, rarely solitary. Involucre +/- campanulate; bracts in 2 to many rows, imbricate, linear, usually hairy. Receptacle flat or slightly convex, epaleate, honeycombed, sometimes with margins of pits produced. Marginalflorets female, fertile, usually in many rows; corolla shorter than style, tubular, filiform, truncate or minutely 2-5-lobed or with long or short lamina, white or pink. Discflorets bisexual, fertile or some functionally male, tubular, becoming campanulate above, 5-lobed, yellow or white. Anthers ecalcarate and ecaudate. Style branches of disc florets narrow and flattened, with broadly triangular appendage, with conspicuous sweeping hairs outside or elliptical with minute sweeping hairs. Cypselas small, compressed, smooth or 1-nerved on each face. Pappus of many barbellate bristles in 1 row, rarely in 2 rows, accrescent, +/- concealing flowers. x = 9 (8, 12) (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes).

Perennial or rarely annual herbs. Leaves alternate, often decurrent, serrate or pinnately lobed, lobes and teeth spinescent or rarely rigidly ciliate. Capitula discoid, many-flowered, solitary, corymbose or variously clustered. Involucre ovoid or globose; bracts in many rows, spiny or innocuous. Receptacle flat or convex, densely setose. Florets bisexual, fully fertile or female; corolla purple, tube narrowly cylindric below, slightly widened above, deeply 5-lobed. Anthers linear, sagittate, adjacent auricles connate and prolonged into entire or lacerated tail. Style abruptly thickened below branches, often with ring of hairs there; branches, often partly connate, sometimes linear or filiform. Cypselas obovoid-oblong, glabrous, with nearly central, horizontal, basal attachment scar. Pappus of feathery bristles in several rows; connate at base. x = 17 (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).

Stiffly erect, perennial herbs with milky latex, with long, stout taproot. Stems annual, usually divaricately branched above, striate, densely hispid-setose to glabrescent. Leaves alternate, often rosulate, pinnatifid or coarsely toothed. Capitula ligulate, solitary or few together in sessile axillary clusters, spicately arranged along branches. Involucre cylindrical; bracts in 2 rows. Receptacle flat, epaleate. Florets bisexual; corolla strap-shaped, blue, rarely pink or white. Anthers sagittate at base, auricles mucronate-acuminate. Style with branches long, slender, obtuse and with sweeping hairs long. Cypselas obovoid-obconical, obscurely 5-angled, smooth, glabrous. Pappus of minute, rounded-obtuse scales. x = 9 (8, 10) (polyploidy).