Herbs, perennial, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves alternate, linear, obovate or oblong-lanceolate, usually chartaceous. Heads yellow, heterogamous, rayed, usually in scorpioid
cymes. Receptacle small, usually pitted. Ray florets few, 1-seriate, female, ligulate. Disc
florets tubular, 5-fid. Involucre oblong or campanulate; bracts many-seriate, coriaceous.
Anther base obtuse. Style arms of bisexual flowers flattened, tips lanceolate. Achenes
alternate or angled, 8 - 12-ribbed. Pappus hairs 1 - 2-seriate, slender, scabrid.
Eurasia and America; ca 100 species, 4 in India.
Literature.
HOFFMAN, O. (1890). Compositse. In Engler & Prantl. Nat. Ptlanzenfam. IV. 5: 150.
OHWI (1956). Flora of Japan P. 1150. RANI, N. & K.M. MATHEW, (1983). In Matthew Fl. Tamil Nadu-Carnatic 3(2): 813.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1a. Inflorescence recurved or spreading; head minute, ca 2 mm across