Gynura Cass.

Herbs, rarely undershrubs, perennial, decumbent or erect, glabrous or hispid; stems angular, striate. Leaves alternate, entire, toothed or pinnatisect, glabrous to hispidly puberulous. Capitula yellow to purple, homogamous, discoid, medium sized, solitary or corymbose, bracteolate. Involucre cylindrical or narrowly campanulate; bracts 10 - 12, 1-seriate, equal, linear, acute or acuminate, herbaceous with narrow, scarious margins, faintly ribbed on the dorsal suface, free or connate in bud condition. Receptacle flat, pitted or shortly fimbriate. Florets all tubular, hermaphrodite, fertile or rarely few outer female, regular, slender; corolla limb lobed; lobes papillose. Anthers acute at the apex, base entire or sub auricled. Style arms slender, filiform, tips long appendaged, subulate, hispid. Achenes fusiform, narrow, 5 - 10-ribbed, glabrous. Pappus hairs white, copious, soft.

Asia, Africa, Australia, Malaysia, China, Nepal and Sri Lanka; ca 100 species, 8 in India.

Literature. DAVIS, F.G. (1979). The genus Gynura (Compositae) in Eastern Asia and the Himalaya Kew Bull. 34: 629 - 640. DAVIS, F.G. (1980). The genus Gynura (Compositae) in India, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles. Kew Bull. 35: 363 - 367. LEVEILLE, H. (1914). Compositae novae asiaticae; Genus in Asia orientali. Bull. Geogr. Bot. 24: 290-291.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Roots tuberous

7. Gynura pseudochina

b. Roots not tuberous

2

2a. Stems climbing

6. Gynura procumbens

b. Stems erect

3

3a. Leaves sessile

2. Gynura bicolor

b. Leaves petioled

4

4a. Capitula orange-orange red

5

b. Capitula yellow

6

5a. Leaves lyrate-pinnatisect; achenes ca 4 mm long, cylindrical, black

3. Gynura lycopersicifolia

b. Leaves not lyrate-pinnatisect; achenes ca 1 - 1.2 mm, grey black

5. Gynura nitida

6a. Leaves ovate to lyrate pinnatifid, densely purplish hairy on both the surfaces

1. Gynura aurantiaca

b. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to obovate, white-pubescent or with dense, yellow hairs on upper surface

7

7a. Leaves with scattered white hairs on the upper surface

4. Gynura nepalensis

b. Leaves with dense yellow hairs on the upper surface

8. Gynura travancorica

List of Lower Taxa