ASTERACEAE  

Annual herbs, without resin canals. Leaves long-decurrent, denticulate to sinuate, woolly-hairy. Capitula disciform, small, aggregated in dense terminal glomerules. Receptacle paleate; paleae marginally laciniate. Florets : outer ones female; central ones perfect. Cypselas laterally compressed. Pappus of free, barbellate bristles.

Annual or perennial herbs, slender, erect. Leaves proximally opposite, distally alternate, sessile, linear, entire or sparsely serrulate. Capitula terminal, solitary, heterogamous and radiate. Involucre ovoid; bracts in 1 or 2 rows. Receptacle flat to conical, epaleate. Ray florets in 1 row, female. Disc florets many, bisexual, proximally cylindric, more distally campanulate and with 5 teeth. Anthers 5, obtuse at base, with triangular appendages at apex. Style cylindric; branches flattened, minutely puberulous. Cypselas ellipsoid, slightly compressed, smooth and glabrous with slightly ribbed margins. Pappus 0 or a minute annular rim.

Annual or perennial herbs with simple to much-branched, erect or decumbent stems; vegetative indumentum of short-stalked, long-armed, symmetrical T-shaped hairs. Leaves opposite, at least those on lower stems, alternate or sometimes in whorls of 3, sessile or petiolate, upper surface of lamina sparsely pilose to scabridulous, lower surface closely whitish-silvery araneose-felted. Capitula usually small, few to many, laxly arranged in corymbiform cymes, or shortly stalked in small clusters, homogamous. Involucre obconic to cyathiform; phyllaries +/-diverging, increasing in size to inside, membranous or scarious, usually with subhyaline margins. Receptacle plane or alveolate. Corollas purple or mauve, regular, narrowly infundibuliform, deeply 5-lobed, usually puberulous, lobes sometimes with acicular bristles and/or T-shaped to Y-shaped hairs. Anthers lanceolate-appendiculate at apex, obtuse at base. Style : arms linear, hairy. Cypselas obovoid-oblong or turbinate, rounded or truncate at apex and ecostate, or 4-6-, or 8-10-ribbed, polished and smooth or with hooked or +/-straight, simple or bifid and globose-glandular trichomes. Pappus 0, or of a few short, caducous, barbellate setae, or of persistent overlapping scales.

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.

Perennial +/-hirsute herbs with annual stems from a woody rootstock; roots many, thong-like; vegetative indumentum sparse to dense, consisting of patent to appressed, stiff, bristle-like hairs. Stems 1-several, leafy or scapiform, branching above. Leaves alternate, often basal, sessile, or narrowly attenuate and petiole-like before widening into a +/-stem-clasping, +/-stem-sheathing base; upper leaves grading into leaf-like bracts. Capitula homogamous, few-flowered, many, syncephalous in bracteate glomerules; glomerules terminal on stiff inflorescence branches, laxly corymbiform-cymose tending to subscorpioid-cymose. Involucre narrowly ovoid-cylindric; phyllaries few-seriate, +/-cartilaginous with pungent apices, strigose to densely hispid or glabrescent. Receptacle small, plane. Corollas 5-lobed, asymmetric, more deeply cleft on one side. Anthers sagittate at base. Style : branches linear-terete, hairy. Cypselas narrowly turbinate-cylindric, +/-10-ribbed, usually glandular between ribs, setulose; pappus 1-seriate, setae 5-10 with bases broad, scale-like and usually overlapping, gradually or abruptly tapering and subterete, barbellate above.