Source:
SSA
Description:
Annual herbs, with ribbed and pilose branches. Leaves alternate, ovate, deeply toothed, pubescent on upper surface, densely albo-tomentose beneath. Capitula radiate; many-flowered, peduncled, terminal and axillary, corymbose. Involucre campanulate; bracts in 2 rows, lanceolate, strigose on back, herbaceous. Receptacle flat, paleate; paleae as long as ovary, lanceolate in profile, boat-shaped, acuminate, keeled, ciliate on keel, pilose above. Ray florets sterile or rarely neuter; corolla yellow; tube very much shorter than lamina, pilose; lamina broadly linear, obtuse. Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow; tube pilose below, widened above; lobes 5, ovate, glandular on face. Anthers linear, faintly eared at base, with lanceolate apical appendage. Style terete, globose at base; branches linear, contracted at apex into linear, glandular appendage. Cypselas oblong, obovate or triquetrous, laterally compressed. Pappus of 2 awns. x = 17 (7, 8, 9, 10) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).
Distribution:
Species +/- 300, North, Central and South America; 2 occur in various parts of sthn Afr. as introduced weeds: * Verbesina encelioides (Cav.) Benth. & Hook. var. encelioides, Namibia, Botswana, North-West, Northern Province, Free State, Northern Cape, and * V. encelioides (Cav.) Benth. & Hook. var. exauriculata C.B.Rob. & Greenm., Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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