Vernonia

Annual or perennial herbs, often suffrutescent with annual stems from woody rootstocks, or small to large shrubs, woody scramblers or rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, sometimes radical, sessile or petiolate, linear to ovate, entire or lobed, penninerved, often glandular. Capitula discoid, 1-many-flowered, capitula usually arranged in corymbiform cymes, sometimes scorpioidly cymose, or in various axillary or terminal clusters, spicate, paniculate or solitary and terminal. Involucre cyathiform-campanulate, obconic, cylindric or hemispheric; bracts free, in 2-many rows, loosely or appressed imbricate; apices acute, obtuse or rounded, often mucronate or aristate. Receptacle flat or convex, plane or alveolate; alveolae sometimes fimbriate; epaleate. Florets normally bisexual and fertile; corolla creamy white, various shades of purple or blue; cylindric to narrowly infundibuliform or slender-tubular below and abruptly widened cylindric above; regularly 5-lobed. Anthers calcarate, ecaudate or shortly caudate; with linear or lanceolate apical appendage. Style branches long-tapering-subterete with stigmatic papillae on inner surface towards base, pilose or shortly hirsute outside, usually with sweeping hairs. Cypselas subterete to +/- laterally compressed, obpyramidal and 4- or 5-sided, oblong-obovoid, turbinate or subfusiform, 2-20-ribbed, sometimes smooth, sparsely to densely glandular, variously hairy or glabrous, with or without distinct basal callus. Pappus usually in 2 rows with outer row of short scales or setae, sometimes caducous; inner whorl of long, barbellate or subplumose, sometimes caducous, whitish purple or green setae, more rarely outer pappus 0. x = 9, 10, 17 (8, 11, 12, 19) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).