Blepharispermum
DC.
Herbs or shrubs, glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire or toothed. Heads
heterogamous, discoid, solitary or in crowded globose clusters, small,
compressed, bracteate at the base. Involucre of 1 - 2 bracts, shorter than the
paleae of the receptacle. Receptacle minute or cylindric, with broad, rigid palea
enclosing the florets. Outer florets female, fertile, few, slender; corolla of
female florets 3 - 4 lobed. Disc florets 2 - 8, bisexual, fertile or sterile, tubular;
those of bisexual florets enlarged above; limb campanulate, 5-lobed. Anther base
sagittate; auricles subcaudate. Style arms of female florets linear; those of
bisexual florets stout, obtuse. Achenes of fertile florets black, compressed,
margins ciliate; outer ones with a ciliate rib. Pappus absent in sterile florets and
of unequal paleae or bristles in fertile florets.
Tropical Africa and Asia; 15 species, 2 in India.
Tropical Africa and Asia; 15 species, 2 in India.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
| 1a. Leaves ovate, membranous, long petioled; heads in corymbs | 1. Blepharispermum petiolare |
| b. Leaves obovate, elliptic, coriaceous, shortly petioled or subsessile; heads solitary | 2. Blepharispermum subsessile |
